What is unconditional love? And how do we get there?
Unconditional: not subject to conditions: wholehearted, unqualified, unreserved, unlimited, unrestricted, unmitigating, unquestioning, complete, total, entire.
While working on my latest mat called This Cord of Love That Binds Us during my artist in residence at the Centre for Craft, Nova Scotia. I found myself struggling with the soft pink section of the layers of love, which is meant to represent the unconditional love of the heart chakra. I have changed sections in this layer more than once, have spun and dyed more yarn and fabric to get it just right, and generally fussed with it more than my usual.
The irony of struggling with the unconditional love layer has not escaped me. The piece overall is about the invisible cord of love that connects us to our adult children, even when they are far away or not with us. In my role as a mother I’ve been working on learning to love without conditions, or expectations or attachment to the journey of others. Unconditional love sounds to me like love without strings attached.
As parents, should we love our children more when they are following a path we approve of/wish for them? What about when they are not following this path? How can we continue to love deeply, without attachment?
Here’s what came up in my last session with my intuitive counsellor. “Detachment doesn’t mean lack of love. Love truly becomes unconditional when we detach from expectations of others.” This detachment can be from our expectations of others and also from their expectations of us.
I find it amazing and wonderful that often the issues I am working through on an emotional level have a way of showing up in my creative work. It is amazing to me that obstacles that present themselves in my piece of work are directly related to what I am processing at an emotional level.
When I encounter a block in a piece I am working on, I try to approach it with curiosity. I ask myself (or journal about it) why is this coming up? What am I learning? Often this is enough to start releasing the block and seeing movement in the piece again. For more information about how to get unblocked, see this post How to Get Unfrozen – One Loop at a Time.
In what ways do you observe links between your creative process and the work you are doing on an emotional level?
Wishing you much curiosity and learning.
Warmly,
Meryl
