Receive What Is Offered

Hunter has a particular way of asking to be loved.

He appears.

A head presses beneath your hand.

Sometimes a paw lands gently on your chest.

There is no performance beforehand. No attempt to be especially charming. No calculation about whether he has earned the attention.

He simply assumes that love is available.

And when it is offered, he receives it completely.

Eyes close.

The body softens.

The purring begins.

Humans can make this considerably more complicated.

Someone gives us a compliment and we explain why it isn't quite deserved.

Someone offers help and we say we're fine.

Someone reaches toward us and we wonder what they expect in return.

Sometimes we become so accustomed to proving our worth that receiving something freely can make us uncomfortable.

Hunter seems to understand something we forget.

Receiving is not the same as taking.

It is allowing another person's affection, kindness, generosity, or care to reach its destination.

There is generosity in that, too.

Perhaps we don't always need to become more deserving of love.

Perhaps sometimes we need to stop moving long enough to notice that it has already arrived.

And when it does—

don't explain it away.

Don't minimize it.

Don't immediately search for a way to repay it.

Receive what is offered.

What would happen if you simply let yourself be loved?