Maybe this speaks to the "choice" part of love, the same part that makes love possible during hard times in a marriage/partnership and certainly as a parent. I think about the parents of individuals who have done horrible things and I think about domestic violence and child abuse. Love doesn't always fade away, otherwise extracting oneself from an abusive relationship or family wouldn't be so hard, even when the practical realities of doing so are reduced or eliminated.

I believe in the ability to love without choice and I believe in choosing love, and in all forms of un-loving someone you used to love. I have experienced each of these in my lifetime. The person easiest to love is my kid, at times the hardest person to love was my spouse. For me humans and creatures are different to love, although I love my dog more than words can say.

To say the obvious, people love differently and have different experiences of love. How much the receiving of love (as opposed to the giving of love, if these things can be untwined) is what we choose to see and feel and believe, I don't know. At some of the more difficult times in my life I think love was all around me but I couldn't feel it or experience it and part of my healing has been to be more open to it.