We must stop refusing love simply because it's not offered in ways we like, or relate to Instead our challenge is to find ways to accept it even when it is not optimally offered.
Here's an analogy that might help you understand what it means to accept love no matter what form it comes in.
Imagine finding yourself in a situation with no food. Let's say you've gone two whole days with nothing to eat. Suddenly you discover a half-eaten hot dog. Would you eat it or throw it away? Would you think, “I can't eat this … it's total junk food! I would rather starve than eat such bad food!” Or would you eat every crumb of it without a thought regarding it's origin?
We might think of receiving love in a similar way.
Here we are hungry for love … we might even feel starved, because we've felt so deprived for so long… but what do we do when love is tossed our way in some unappetizing way? More often than not, because it has been offered in a less than desirable form, we refuse it.
We are unwilling to accept the love that is offered because we deem it unacceptable; ‘it's too unhealthy,' ‘it's dysfunctional. They don't offer it in the right tone of voice, or they spoke it using the wrong words” … and therefore we discard it – and go on starving.
Look around at the imperfect people in your life and see how you may be refusing their love simply because they “don't do it right.” Practice allowing it in – practice relishing the little ways they offer love in the same way you would relish a left-over hot dog in a moment of abject hunger.
Feast on the love that is available to you and expect a banquet of love to follow.
Blessings, Lynne
2 Responses
As an Aromantic Asexual I would like to elaborate on the analogy I’ve come to know which also involves food.
Love to me is like being surrounded by a large feast with everything I could possibly eat. But I’m not hungry.
Good analogy … Daniel, it does beg a question, however, that asks: “why?” What keeps you from your natural born appetite for love?” What is the decision made that keeps you pushing food (nourishment) away?
Universal Principles remind us that our responses to life are the result of what we believe, and the feelings that result from those beliefs… Understanding what we believe beneath it all determines our reaction to life. Even our ability to desire is determined by what we think.
What an interesting belief/feeling/reaction chain to unwind in the quest of knowing and understanding yourself better, Daniel! At least so it seems to me.