Before I get started with today’s post, I have a housekeeping task to take care of first.  I am hosting next week’s Carnival of Healing.  I have already had one submission and it alone has inspired me so I know we’re going to have a great carnival.  I’d love to accept your posts.  You can submit your article here.  Just one thing to keep in mind for getting on my site:  Please, please, keep it positive!  Your article can be thought-provoking, humorous, or factual, I don’t care, as long as it is positive.  If all you want to do is whine and complain, write in your journal.  If you can’t express yourself without using foul language, pick up a dictionary.  The final criterion is this:  If it’s too embarrassing for my 85 year-old father-in-law to read, it doesn’t make the cut!

With that being said and done, I’ve been inspired today with a new way to appreciate.  I don’t know why this has never occurred to me before, I’ve had to have read something similar to this is Esther Hicks’ work, but it only “hit me” this week.  I suppose when the student is ready, the teacher really will appear.  Here it is:  Love and appreciation are in so many ways the same thing.  Did you know that in many cultures, the word “love” does not even exist?  The language uses a word more similar to “appreciation” or “honor” instead.  Isn’t that interesting?  I think it is and here’s why.

In Western culture, we have come to almost think of love as a four-letter word . . .  wait a minute . . .let me do that over!  Well, I think you know what I mean.  Most romantic sit-coms these days revolve around the first time a man or woman says, “I love you.”  Don’t be the one to say it first – that’s a bad, horrible, thing to admit!  What if the other person doesn’t feel the same way?  Oh, the humiliation love brings!

I’ve written before about the teacher I know who tells her students that “you can’t love something that can’t love you back.”  The more I think about that statement the more I think, “How sad.”

I love my cats.  Do they love me back?  They’ve never said that they love me.  But then, they can’t, can they?  But when they sit next to me while I’m writing a blog post and purr as they fall asleep, it certainly feels as if they love me- one on one side, one on the other – I love it!  Oops!  That feeling can’t love me back – therefore, I shouldn’t love it?

But I do!

Frankly, I don’t think we use the word love enough.  I teach a lot about going on rampages of appreciation, but if you want to get really excited about your life, make a list of everything you love.  This is the concept that just hit me this week.  So here I go with my list – hoping to inspire yours.

I love my cats, I love my husband, I love my entire family, and I love my friends.  (Not necessarily in that order, now, give me a break!)  I love my career, I love the work I do, and I love blogging.  I love my home, I love my car, and I love my lawn furniture.  I love my TV, TiVo, and living room.  I love the opportunities that are constantly streaming my way, the universe for sending them to me, my guardian angels for watching over me, and my inner being for constantly guiding me.  I love all of the women who work for my husband and make his load lighter.  I love the members of this community for supporting me and my entire family in our businesses and in our lives.  I love having the opportunities and talents to give back.  I love God for creating all of this in the first place, and for empowering me with the gift of infinite creation.  I love the fact that this is just the beginning and that while I’m leaving out so many things, that very fact shows me how amazingly abundant I am.  I love it all, and I love my life.

Now, could I have used the word “appreciate” in each of those statements?  Yes.  And that’s what I’ve been doing, deliberately.  And it has worked.  But today, for whatever reason, using the word “love” just feels more fun, more exciting, and more uplifting.

What’s the difference?

I’m not sure there is any.  Maybe we are supposed to love unconditionally and appreciate things and people for what they do.  Maybe I am supposed to appreciate my TV, and love my husband.  Does that mean I can’t appreciate my husband and love my TV?

It’s a very fine line, isn’t it?

I’m not coming to any conclusions for you today.  Right now, it feels good to love everything, and I’m going with it.  I challenge you to start loving a lot more.

Pick up your cat and tell it you love it.  And please, please, come back here and let me know if it suddenly starts speaking English and tells you it loves you back!

Until next time,
Love!

You can subscribe to this blog here.

GET CONTROL OF YOUR LIFE NOW When you’re ready to create the life you want, purchase my latest e-book to get started on the right path. I share my latest success tips and how I’ve applied 20 years of solid business principles and the law of attraction to acquiring the life of my dreams. Wake Up and Create the Life You Want: A Guide to Self-Empowerment is helping many others do the same. It comes with my free report on “The Science of Getting Rich.” Both are downloadable, so you get them immediately, and pay no shipping.

Posted under Education, Inspiration, Law of Attraction, Leadership, Motivation, Success