HiPurple
Regular Member
- Sep 25, 2019
- 442
- 480
Every year, there’s this promise. Some think it’s a crock; others hold onto it with all their faith. But each holiday season, the promise is there. It’s the promise of brotherly love. We hear of the ideal; read about it; sing about it; buy it. We want to believe that a free world with love and compassion can be a reality. We believe in the promise.
The ideal is nice. But is it just an ideal; or maybe just a naïve rambling only heeded when the calendar calls for it? How could a higher love exist in such unsure, turbulent times?
Take a deep look into your everyday world and find it. With a little effort, you’ll sense unconditional love at work. I say it’s here already. It’s not like we have to create it; we only have to take what is already there and expand on it.
For validation, you may have to look to your own deep feelings. For me, proof of unconditional love comes in the form of chills and tears. You know: that exhilarating feeling that inches up the back of your neck, resulting in those damp eyes and that chilling contentment. Have you had that—perhaps after hearing something poignant or sensing something beautiful? I believe it’s the sign that there is a chance for us, a chance for our Earth, a chance that an unconditional love can exist here and now.
I really get those chills whenever I sense my higher being’s protection and assistance. Both come so lovingly and unconditionally, I can’t help but tear up. I get a feeling of being “cared for”, a feeling of compassion, a feeling of unconditional love, a feeling of being hugged from the inside.
Many times people sense the love when watching the hero stories on the news. There are always those humanitarian tales that sound so dramatic, they can’t be real. In 1983, Kansas City Chief Running Back Joe Delaney dove into a lake to save a drowning boy, forgetting that he too could not swim. On the Titanic, some were said to have given up their lifejackets for little ones. And to this day, we continue hear tributes of the many brave heroes and heroines who lost their lives on 9/11, to save others.
I have a good friend who senses the love at extraordinary times. Like on the “$100,000 Pyramid” game show. Whenever he would watch the unconditional joy expressed in the face of the star who just helped someone else win it big, he couldn’t help but tear up.
Tears also come to him when the procession at a 4-way stop sign goes smoothly, with no conflicts and only cooperation and true team effort.
For more examples, we can look to the movies. You did see Walt Disney’s “Dumbo”, didn’t you? Oh my, when the mama elephant was all chained up in that cage and her little Dumbo inched over so that she could reach him to rock him to sleep with her trunk. If you didn’t feel something there, your heart just wasn’t beating. I don’t care if it was “just a cartoon”.
I, myself, was fortunate enough to see some unconditional care one day as I watched the sweetest couple adopt, out of all the cats that were available, one special cat who could only respond to their voices; she was blind from a history of abuse.
And it—this special love and care beyond one’s self—appears anytime you see someone helping out: a crossing guard plunging into traffic with only a red sign and yellow vest; a passerby turning out the draining lights of a car in a lonely parking lot; a gathering of environmentalists doing their best for the plight of a beached whale; the third-grade teacher who funds winter clothing for impoverished children out of her own pocketbook.
The cynic should take note of a spirit deep inside of mankind. It connects us all. Apparently, at our heart level, no separation exists. One must look closely and see true love at work. It’s not the romantic, passionate distinction, but it’s the inner love which is life’s highest, purest connection.
Yes, it exists. It’s there. Virginia was right. The promise holds true. But unconditional love and care aren’t going to knock you over the head saying, “See me.” It won’t be bought at the mall, digested along with the holiday meal, or unwrapped along with all the other toys and gadgets. Unconditional love is something that you feel, discovered within the hidden corners of our everyday world and the secret corridors of our own selves.
Happy holidays, folks.
