Pure Love- Loving our Companion Animals- Part 2

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Unconditional Love and Acceptance

We routinely throw these words around when talking about a relationship with an animal. But what do they really mean? They mean that we are loved and accepted, no matter what. There are no conditions placed on the love. It’s not conditional on whether you’ve been well behaved, or on whether you earn enough money, or on whether you are good-looking, or on whether you’re a source of pride.

It’s unconditional. It is love that is extended to you simply because you are.

This is love that is not to be taken lightly. Many people have never experienced this quality of loving with another human being at all. If we were lucky some of us had a taste of unconditional love when we were very small infants for a very brief period of time following birth when we were still merged with our mothers.

Many of us weren’t lucky enough to have it at all. Demands and conditions were placed on whether we were lovable or not from a very early age. So when we say that our companion animals give us unconditional love and acceptance, we’re saying a very great deal. It is rare and therefore very precious.

What is it about unconditional love that is so compelling? When you are in the presence of someone who loves you unconditionally and accepts you for who you are, you can be yourself. You can be fully open and real in that relationship.

You can be in that relationship with no guardedness, no defensiveness, no armor blocking the flow and expression of your feelings. With no barriers you can let that other being in deep in a way that you can rarely trust another human to enter.

You can open your heart to another being. You can be naked. This is no second-class relationship. This is the very essence of relatedness.

Part 3