Prompt 25 – All Is Love: Who do you love unconditionally? Who loves you unconditionally? Who do you love despite their flaws? All is love.

I am a very blessed person for being able to say what I’m about to: I don’t think there is just one person that I love unconditionally, nor is there only one person that loves me unconditionally. There have been people throughout my life, some with me longer than others, that have proven to be loyal and loving companions. I’m unsure if unconditional love can be one-way. Perhaps it’s possible, and you could probably argue it either way. But I tend to believe this kind of love runs so deep and powerful that both people would have to be conscious of this type of bond, and for the bond to exist, it would be a reciprocated feeling.

My parents have, from the beginning, shown me love regardless of how much we may have driven each other crazy in the early years. Throughout my adulthood, they’ve become people I confide in just about every aspect of my life and inner most thoughts. I know they have a deeper level of understanding where my words and actions come from, and I know I don’t have to explain my rationale. They just get it – they get me.

But then there’s Dan. I never honestly thought I’d find someone that loves me for me, and accepts every inch of me exactly as I am. I know that may sound ridiculous to some, but if you’ve ever been in a pattern of hurtful, neglectful relationships that you feel succumbed to, then you understand what I mean. Dan, and what he brought into my life, was something so totally unexpected that I held him at arm’s length at first. Probably because I wasn’t ready to embrace the magnitude of it. When you first get to know someone on an intimate level, it can be quite stressful. You’re exposing layers of yourself that you’ve kept hidden from only those that have known you forever or are related to. You–knowingly or not–start showing bits of yourself that you don’t even like to acknowledge, and hope that this person doesn’t think any less of you. Likewise, you discover those bits about them they’re afraid to expose as well. I’ve been continually surprised this year by the openness and steadiness of Dan’s love for me, and also by my love in return for him. We’ve only been together for about a year and an half, but I am more in love with him now than I was when the feeling first struck me.

These growing feelings reaffirm that honest love is not about the bells and whistles that go off when you are first attracted to someone, but, rather, it’s the growing levels of admiration, respect and caring you can experience for someone that is not yourself. And what I mean by that is, you spend the most time with yourself (naturally). You’ve been with yourself your whole life. You’re stuck with you. You don’t get to leave. But this kind of love is out of choice. It’s without obligation. It’s felt for someone that you know only beginning from a certain point in your life. They’re different than you in how they were raised, their background, maybe their beliefs. And then, suddenly, the life you’ve been moving forward with is not just for you but for someone else too.

Never have I experienced this kind of love before until this year, and it’s inexplicable. I’ve mentioned Dan before and how I’ve never felt freer to be me than I do now in the presence of someone else. I mention only my parents and Dan in this post because I have only ever felt this kind of exposed, on a soul level, with these three people. Perhaps that’s how I can best explain Dan’s presence in my life and the love we have for each other: my parents gave me life and loved me the way only parents can for their children; and Dan gave me new life and loves me the way that only a true life partner can.

New love–and new life–was breathed into me this year, making me feel more peaceful and safe than I have ever felt about life here on earth. 2011 marked an unexpectedly beautiful new beginning.