Vending Machine

As usual, I came up with a blog concept while talking with a friend. She and I were talking about being perpetual givers. We spoke on unconditional love and its drawbacks.

Such as...you get taken for granted quite easily. See, if you tout that you're the most unconditional-love-giving mofo around, people will begin to see that as a green light to neglect YOUR needs in return. I mean, why give someone love if they never seem to "need" it back? They're a bottomless well, right? At least that's what it seems to mean. The term or phrase of unconditional love basically means to give love without expectation of return or favor. Being that I am BIG on love...I try to live by this creed. I give people chances to be loved and to recognize at their own pace how to love me back. If they miss the memo...then I just forge forward, treating people as I normally do. I say, "I'm not responsible for someone else's actions and reactions!" I govern myself based on my own conscience and capacity.

Yet that thinking tends to result in a pattern of neglect and loneliness. People are not machines. A person cannot continue to "vend" on someone else's dime. No more than we should have expectations on the love we give, should one expect to receive it with a sense of entitlement. I mean...Who is there to replenish the "machine" when all the goods are gone? Can or better yet...WILL the people you love refill your well? Or maybe its quite possible that some individuals are indifferent to the love given to them...especially if they're getting it from more than one source. Why should they care if you've exhausted your spiritual inventory?

Truth is, GOD replenishes. He refills you. However, even with God filling you back up...you are still human and flawed in that you eventually WILL want someone to return that love to you. It doesn't make you any less a giver of love...just less of a machine.