I don't care...

Do you ever notice that there is a duality to everything in life? There's yin and yang, peace and war, optimism and pessimism to name a few. Let's look at the most important duality: Love.

What is the opposite of Love? Some will immediately jump up and say it's hate.

The emotions that come from love are deeply entrenched internal feelings that make us do things that we otherwise wouldn't rationally do. The emotions that come from hate come from the exact same place and do the exact same thing to us. Hate is definitely a negative emotion. But emotionally speaking, it is not the opposite of love. It makes us feel the opposite of love.

Look at an example of the best love I ever witnessed: love between a mother and a child. The mother has this deep love for her child because she sees the child as an extension of her. The love is almost unbreakable, even when the child, in our eyes, doesn't deserve her love. A grown child who disrespects his mother, beats her, lies to her, steals from her may be considered an example that doesn't deserve the love of a mother. She will never hate her child.

I'll reiterate, a mother will never hate her child. She may be upset with him. More likely, she will grow to be indifferent of him. Is it possible that the opposite of love is indifference? Indifference is a state of emotionless.

Loving someone and feeling that the person doesn't care can be a very deep hurtful emotion that is exactly the opposite of the love that is being projected. Imagine this interaction between two people:

Person 1: I love you sweetie.
Person 2: I don't care.

If you're the second person in any of your relationships, understand what indifference can do. We all need love in our lives. Realize that although you may feel love, you're not projecting love back and in fact could be killing the very lifeblood that you need.

If you're the first person in the example, the lack of love from the other person is killing you inside and making you indifferent as well. As soon as one person doesn't care in a relationship, the relationship is broken. You can be in a broken relationship for a long time, but it will not fulfill you.

Hugs and Kisses!

Rick