Unconditional love and behavior

While walking, I notice people and how they behave. I notice if they look at me. I notice if they just look ahead. In the past, I wrote about people looking away when I approached. It puzzled me. I now developed a clear idea of how to think about that — unconditional love.

I like Julia Mossbridge's definition for unconditional love: "The benevolent desire that you achieve the greatest possible fulfillment, whatever that might be." And, people while walking, may have a concept of personal fulfillment that involves a walk that's to themselves — focused on their thoughts, their world, and filtering out everything else. And, if I'm to be a practitioner of unconditional love, perhaps the best thing I can do is to develop a heartfelt desire that those people have that moment they need to themselves — nothing else needs to change.

You might call this practice "empathy" and perhaps it touches empathy; I prefer "unconditional love". I call it unconditional love because my desire for the person I'm thinking about to achieve their maximum fulfillment doesn't require me to do anything about it; and, it doesn't require the person to have to change. Said more simply: it's allowing things to be as they are without anything having to change. Philosophical readers might see this as a nod "Stoic de-attachment", products of Jesuit education might say sounds half-like "Ignatian indifference", others might see it as "loving kindness." However you see it, the simple act of allowing people and their journeys to be as fulfilling for them as it can be, is a beautiful and generous act.

I'll write more on unconditional love in a subsequent post... for now... these are my musings.