The Gift goes on.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/katie-landry/6559669339

So much has changed over the years, yet there is something that has never changed, will never change, and it is something that I am eternally grateful for.  This something is something that every one craves, it is something that everyone needs, and it is something that everyone already has.

This simple, often unassuming gift is the gift of love.  Love comes in many shapes and sizes, just as the gifts we receive throughout the year.  There is no right or wrong way to send love to someone as long as it is true love and not something manufactured to look like it.  Love is something that often goes un-noticed until such time as we realize that we are lacking it, and then quite often there is nothing we won't do to get it back.  Love is, as many have said before me, timeless.  Love can take the mundane and make it magical.  Love can create an atmosphere were achieving the impossible is now commonplace, where possibilities abound, and where limits are nothing more then a footnote at the bottom of the page.

Why am I writing about love again today?  Because there are people out there who have forgotten that they were created from love, because of love, and for love.  We have allowed the cares of this world to muddy up the real meaning of love, and the real reason you are here in the first place.  It is difficult to feel love, understand love, and be love when you are being trampled on by every manner of daily expectations from others.  When you are hip deep in problems it is darn near impossible to feel that love is already in you and all you need to do is accept it and move on.  When you have given your all and someone says your all is not good enough, it is then that most forget that love abounds, and that love is the great equalizer.

I was thinking about love the other day, not that it is ever far from my mind, but in this particular moment I was reflecting on love and the significance it has to each of us.  I mean were it not for love none of us would be here.  When was the last time you felt unconditional love?  Love comes in many different forms, and at different times in our life, at least the love we have come to know.  Real love, the love that put you here in the first place, is not a love of proportion.  It does not depend on the amount you give back, or don't give back. It is not predicated upon whether you accept it or not.  The love from God is endless, spaceless, and timeless.

What I want you to see today is that this love is what is at our center, and until such time as you can accept the premise that you are unconditionally loved, you will always be looking for love because you feel as though love has forgotten about you.  There are so many people in loveless relationships and instead of looking within to figure out why love escapes them, they look for love in all the wrong places.

We are about to enter into the holiday season.  Thanksgiving is right around the corner and after that Christmas and New Years.  Most people will be with family and friends over the holidays, but how many will really feel the love that these occasions are known for.  If you cannot love yourself, if you cannot accept the love from the Creator of the Universe, then all the holidays in the known world will not bring you to this point of knowing true love.  Knowing that you are loved is the only thing that is going to help you accept other forms of love into your life.  I know I sound like a broken record, but love is the foundation of everything we do, everything that we are or hope to be in the future.  Without it, life is in fact meaningless.

There's a song from many years ago that says what the world needs now is love, sweet love.  If everyone knew and accepted the unconditional love that was theirs, then this world would be a better place.  If everyone understood the foundation that love played in their life, this world would be a better place.  I hear all the time that people are waiting for love to find them, how about you find the love.  The love you are looking for has always been there, you have just gone after the false love that the world has conditioned you to believe is all there is.  I am not discounting the love that a spouse provides, or the love from a child,  family member or friend.  This is love, but as I said before if you are unable to love yourself, like God loves you, then eventually the love the world says is true love will leave you as well.

If you want to share the gift of love with others, then you are going to have to accept the gift of love that was given to you the moment you were created.  Isn't it fantastic that the love that brought you into this world, is never going to go away, and you never have to question its authenticity.  All you have to do is accept it.  It is time to recognize where your love comes from, why it comes to you, and that it is only for you.  When you can do that, then the love you have been missing will suddenly find you and it will never leave you.