Note: As I live and continue to become who I am, a recent moment of spiritual insight illumined in a fashion that I can articulate a painful personal truth that I long have carried, buried deep within my unconscious self; a truth, for an equally long time, I consciously have labored to overcome…
A Short (aphoristic) Version: When one is taught and learns that love is earned, then one cannot receive love.
A Long (exegetic) Version: When one is taught that love is to be earned by good conduct that satisfies the standards of the reputed lover, then one learns that love is a wage, a reward for the successful effort in demonstrating one’s worthiness.
Thus, one ever seeks to prove one’s deserving; often in relationships with (drawn to and attracting) those who, somehow (psychically? subconsciously?) aware of one’s craving need to justify one’s value, habitually, in an egoïstic and anxious act of wielding power, withdraw or withhold their approval.
Thus, one barely knows how to recognize and to receive the love that is love, which always is given unreservedly, unconditioned by and unconcerned with any evidence of one’s merit.
© 2021 PRA
#truelovecannotbeearned #trueloveisgivenandreceived #loveisloveislove
occasional observations of mind and heart, soul and spirit 
Thank you for this Paul!! There is nothing better than unconditional love. It can be hard to offer at times but it’s more than worth it. I unfortunately know several people who never experienced unconditional love growing up and thus haven’t given it to their kids. It’s not a good cycle to be on.
Love
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Loretta, fairly early in my ordained pastoral vocation, as I listened to folk share the stories of their lives, one of realizations is that most (all?) of us, from the earliest of our formative moments, are laden with the expectations (sometimes good, sometimes not) of others. Thus, many of us are not taught (and, thus, did not…cannot learn) that we are valuable, lovely and lovable, primarily and simply/profoundly because we exist. Therefore, we are conditioned to believe that love is conditional; based on our behavior matching/meeting some standard (again, which can be good or not).
In a way, unconditional love is easy because in order to give it to you I only need to know, to believe two things: 1. That I possess the power to love unconditionally (which, in my Christian orientation, I believe that God in Christ through the Holy Spirit grants me the ability to do) and 2. That I choose to exercise that power to love unconditionally on your behalf.
Love you
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