It never stays the same and at the end of it, someone is always left alone. There are no exceptions. Somehow, we missed beyond the point of "they lived happily ever after" to the reality of when "they" no longer lived. One heart stops and another heart breaks.
In the face of pain and loss, why do we then bother? Why do we willingly sign up for what will inevitably cause us pain? I suppose that the answer is "because it's worth it."
We have two choices before us: we can either live for something greater than ourselves, or we can live a mundane, "safe" life - never risking for greatness for fear of getting hurt. Yet, pain is inescapable - it is a byproduct of living in this fallen world.
I've referenced this quote before, but it's one of my favorites: Mother Theresa said, "I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love.” To love is to be stretched outside of yourself to the point of pain. But pain is the price we pay to leave a legacy.
To have loved means to say, "I have been a part of something greater than myself. I have died and continue to die to myself for it. I have grown, and I have hurt. I have cried and burned. And I continue because it is worth it."
We were made for love - to love and to be loved. It reflects the Divine in whose image we were created. When we love we are alive.
We have the choice of pain before us: play it safe and hide - protect the self at all costs and slowly curve inward over the years, becoming more bent in our selfish loneliness; or learn to love - vulnerably open up the heart to something bigger than yourself and allow the pain to expand your heart so that you become more able to love than you were before.
Perhaps, at the end of our relatively short lives, one of the best things that could be said about us is, "they loved well."
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