Love Without Attachment

I've got a new practice for the summer. I'm calling it Love Without Attachment. I've put a bright yellow Post-It on my computer with those three words scrawled in blue sharpie. (next to the reminder "Left Foot, Right Foot, Left Foot, Breathe.")

What it means is that I am trying to practice loving people (friends, family, and HIM) without all of the baggage that we attach to it.

It's remarkable -- when you really pay attention -- how much we invest in telling ourselves and someone else that we love them. Things can be going along swimmingly, and the minute you introduce "love" into the picture, suddenly there's all this stuff. And by stuff, I mean expectations, rules, conditioned beliefs, and so on and so on.

We love to tout our abilities to love unconditionally. But do we ever, really?

More on this practice later. I need to go home and get some dinner.