Unconditional Love

"As love becomes more and more unconditional,

it begins to be experienced as inner joy."
David R. Hawkins

Chad & Lo at Chad's birthday burger party!

It is Valentine's Day weekend, and I want to talk about something we've all heard of, and most of us have probably experienced (either giving or receiving it).

~ Unconditional Love ~

In the simplest terms, unconditional love means to love someone regardless of her or his actions or beliefs. A bit more in-depth, I believe conditional love is "earned" on the basis of conscious or unconscious conditions being met, whereas unconditional love is "given freely" to the loved one "no matter what." Conditional love requires some kind of finite exchange, whereas unconditional love is infinite and measureless.

You may have felt unconditional love from family, parents, children, friends, lovers. You are blessed. Take a moment to acknowledge them.

The greatest unconditional love I have ever personally felt is from dogs and cats and horses. If you feel animals don't have emotions then you're going to think I'm anthropomorphizing, but that's OK we're all entitled to our opinions. And the argument can exist that an animal will "love" anyone who feeds her/him, but I have seen an animal refuse food too many times to agree.

Today my life is full of love. Two dogs and a cat love me dearly and tell me every chance they get, many times a day in fact, that there is a great reason for living. And when I look back on my life, I see I have always been loved, even when I may have felt I wasn't. I had the love of animals!

___________

I want to give back a little bit of that unconditional love. All day today, February 14th and all day tomorrow, February 15th (until midnight PST), I am raising funds for my dear Dogster friend Mel and her sweet Belgian, Mica's IMHA research fund, where even $1.00 helps.

If you can join me in giving some love this weekend to those who have loved us unconditionally, I will add $5.00 to your donation pledge.

How? Just two easy steps, that you must follow:

1. Email me (....) with the title this blog post (hint: it is two words!).
2. Tell me you will pledge to donate to Mica's IMHA Research Fund.

In order to keep accurate track of the pledges, there can be no exceptions to the 2 rules above. But that's it!

I will send you an acknowledgment email that includes the address to send in your donation (which you can also get here).

And just to make it a little interesting...

• 10th email I get with a donation pledge, I will add $10.00 to it.
• 15th email I get with a donation pledge, I will add $15.00 to it.
• 20th email I get with a donation pledge, I will add $20.00 to it.
• And on and on....
  

In December, we helped raise $390. Let's see what we can do for love!

2006: Sweet Sena, Violet, and Duncan