February is heart month…and the focus is on love. From the romantic love surrounding Valentine’s Day; the compassionate love evoked as we are encouraged to support Heart and Stroke Foundations; to the acts of love from our hearts as we participate in the 14th anniversary of Random Acts of Kindness Week; we even get an extra day this particular February to feel the love!

Where I live, February 18th marks a new statutory holiday this year called Family Day offering us a chance to relax and re-connect with our kids. It’s a welcomed mid-winter reprieve that is much needed in our stressful and busy lives and can help to remind us of another type of love that is so important in our lives…unconditional love.

According to Webster’s New Millennium™ Dictionary of English, the definition of unconditional love is: affection with no limits or conditions; complete love.

As parents, when we cradle our newborn baby in our arms for the first time, we experience the feelings that go along with this definition…it can be somewhat indescribable, too big to put into words, but there is no question that this unconditional love feels good!

If you had asked me some years ago if I loved my children unconditionally, I would have said, “Of course I do…what a silly question!” But much to my surprise, I soon discovered that this wasn’t the case.

I became humble and brave enough to look at the conditional ways I loved not only my kids, but others in my life as well… including myself!

This was the moment of truth for me and now, if you asked me to sit in the hot seat to respond to the statement, “I unconditionally love my kids”, I would be off to the bank to deposit my winnings!

Could you imagine being disappointed in or mad at our babies if they didn’t smile or lift their head according our expectations or punishing them because they didn’t poop the number of times per day that the books said they were supposed to?

I know, this may seem like rather a strange analogy, yet it can help to consciously remind us of what unconditional love is... affection with no limits or conditions; complete love; what could really just be considered as common sense!

We all do the best we can with what we know, but can we imagine how all of our lives could be changed just by being aware of when we aren’t using this common sense?

Can we experience more peace in our families, our schools and in our world?
Yes we can!

Can we unconditionally love our kids, our partners, our friends, ourselves?
Yes we can!

So in this shorter month of February, let’s inspire ourselves to be aware and ride the wave of this exciting time of Change!

Can we be the role models our kids need us to be?
Yes we can!

www.betherolemodel.com

Author's Bio: 

As an author, speaker and awareness/life coach, Jo-Anne Cutler has become a passionate voice for children by building the awareness of what we are teaching them by our example and following her vision to inspire and empower others to be the connected parents, teachers and role models our children need them to be. She has created an audio program called Breaking the Cycle, is in the process of writing her own book (scheduled release early 2008), in production for her internet radio show, is a certified life coach using The Inner Workout™ program and is also the author of several published articles and co-author of 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Vol. 2. She offers personal/telephone consultations, seminars, and a free monthly e-newsletter, opening hearts to the harmony that we all desire in our homes, our classrooms and in our lives; one connection at a time. For more information, please visit www.betherolemodel.com