Unconditional Love

Recently I heard one of my favorite human friends has been feeling discouraged, so I'm going to address a very real issue in the dog-world: unconditional love. When my pawrents come home each night, I don't ask them to list all their accomplishments. I don't ask them where they messed up in the day and to go through a plan how that'll never happen again. I'm not resentful they left me for a period of time because I've heard them say enough times, "buddy, someone's gotta work to buy your food." I need to eat. So, no protests here! I don't need them to prove anything to me. I just want them to be present with me. I love them regardless of how their day went. No mess ups are big enough to threaten that love.

I follow my mom around like Velcro for about 20 minutes after she gets home. I show her I'm here and will always love her regardless of how her day went. I visibly see the stress of the day go away. Especially when she's petting my fur. I like to lay on her legs like a blanket just to further seal the deal about my unrelenting love.

How different would the world be if we could love ourselves the way us dogs love humans? I don't mean that in a narcissistic monster sort of way. I mean showing ourselves compassion and unconditional positive regard. It's so easy to get down on ourselves and list all our mistakes we've made since we were 5 years old, but what does that accomplish? Misery?

Instead, how about taking a few minutes at the end of each day to tell ourselves we are enough even if we messed up that day, we tried our best, and still view ourselves from a positive lens. Tomorrow is a new day. And hopefully you have a dog that treats you like you're the best human in the entire world! If you don't, just imagine me laying on you like this: