Have you ever heard someone say, or even heard yourself say, “I love you, but..” There is no such thing as “I love you, but…” There is only “I love you, AND…” Love is inclusive, not exclusive. It is unconditional.
In a world that is in need of more openness and inclusion, instead of binary ordering, thinking, and exclusion, we must practice this inclusion and unconditional love first with ourselves so that we can extend that feeling, that way of living, working, and breathing outward to the world around us.
With the self this means I love you just exactly as you are right now, AND I see this opportunity for growth. Brené Brown says that the antidote to shame (which is often part of the “I love you but…” story we tell ourselves about ourselves) is Empathy.
Inclusion and Empathy — first with ourselves, and then with those around us. This means loving your whole self, knowing you’re doing the best you can in every moment with the tools you currently have awareness of, and that the same is true of everyone around you.
“Dear Human: You’ve got it all wrong. You didn’t come here to master unconditional love. That is where you came from and where you’ll return. You came here to learn personal love. Universal love. Messy love. Sweaty love. Crazy love. Broken love. Whole love. Infused with divinity. Lived through the grace of stumbling. Demonstrated through the beauty of… messing up. Often. You didn’t come here to be perfect. You already are. You came here to be gorgeously human. Flawed and fabulous. And then to rise again into remembering. But unconditional love? Stop telling that story. Love, in truth, doesn’t need ANY other adjectives. It doesn’t require modifiers. It does’t require the condition of perfection. It only asks that you show up. And do your best. That you stay present and feel fully. That you shine and fly and laugh and cry and hurt and heal and fall and get back up and play and work and live and die as YOU. It’s enough. It’s plenty.” — Courtney A. Walsh
Krystal Barschig 