Love is restless. It doesn’t listen to the mind or common sense. It thrusts you into an abyss of exhilarating joy and excitement.
Love is all those sweet beginnings and romance. When it’s so easy, yet you still wear your protective shield and overthink what you are going to wear and say, or how your date went.
Love is like a jolt of electricity, like bungee jumping only worse because your feelings can be tossed off a cliff if the other side does not reciprocate, and that hurts more than blasting your body in the ocean or on a concrete floor.
Love is all those momentous looks and conversations about traveling and favorite movies or food preferences.
But you often forget the coin has another side. Love is not a sunset backdrop. It’s not as easy as riding a bike. It also requires emotions, real bonding, putting your heart on the sleeve.
It requires sacrifice; it requires dedication and trust – sharing your hurts and hardships with someone, showing that you are vulnerable and fragile, giving that person the power to hurt you.
Not everyone can do it, though: there are people that would never put their heart on the line; people that protect themselves not because they are afraid to love – because they are afraid of failure and unreciprocated feelings.
It’s hard to get to them, but it’s even harder to keep them. It’s those that love fearlessly that will fight for you and will not let you go.
They understand love as teamwork but are not afraid to take up the role of the team leader and carry you on their shoulders.
All the doubts, all the insecurities – they can deal with them. They are lenient not because they lack character, but because they love to the fullest and they are loyal. They chose you and will stand by you.
They love you without holding back because they care about the present and the future, not about the past. They know all your flaws and imperfections and love you because not despite it.
It’s not that they are not afraid to love and put their feelings out there first, it’s that they know love is a leap of faith – trembling while uttering the words, yet doing it anyway because you know love means taking a risk; making the first step, diving in deep waters without a life jacket on.
Those people love fearlessly because they know how important it is to have someone to support you and love all aspects of you.
They have been hurt but instead of shutting down, they found it in their heart to forgive and find love again. They connect bridges and cross lines. They transcend their pride and leave skepticism and mistrust aside.
Love those people. Appreciate them. They know love is not easy, but are willing to make a relationship work even if it means doing the bigger part themselves.
Cherish those people, keep them.
They are not weak or clingy, they just know that love is not like picking strawberries from the ground. It’s more like picking chestnuts. You have to stretch out to reach the branches.
