Wounds...

Short and sweet, the deeper the capacity to love, the deeper the potential wound if love goes wrong... Perhaps that is why there is such a lack of commitment today, why there is a lack of depth to most relationships, why individuals go through partner after partner in search of the "right one". Before even considering opening up ourselves we want to make sure the other is "right" first, and they want to make sure we are right, so we end up a bunch of emotionally closed off people drifting among other closed off people...

Love means taking a chance, being willing to be vulnerable, even if the other isn't. From the most negative viewpoint it means intentionally opening ourselves up for the possibility of severe emotional pain, yet, from the most positive it means allowing ourselves the opportunity to feel the deepest, most intense, most moving of all emotions. It is the pinnacle, the greatest of all emotions, and even though we don't fully understand what pure and unadulterated love is, that very thing that God is, even in our flawed state we can experience a small taste of what that perfect state is... But we have to be vulnerable, we have to be willing to sacrifice our security, we have to be willing to take the chance of being hurt. To the degree that we don't allow ourselves to be open and vulnerable, it is to that degree we restrict our ability to love and be loved. And we do restrict our ability to receive love as well as give. That is a travesty, for if one wants to love and is denied that in itself is a wound.

But what about when we're wounded? The deeper the love the deeper the wound. The more precious the memories the harder and longer to heal the wound. I don't think we ever really heal from those really deep wounds; we recover, we move on, we learn to transfer those affections to others. But a sight, or sound, or smell might trigger a memory, and your heart feels a pang, a stab, from the depths of that wound... It's a good thing, then, if we've moved on, and experienced love anew, for our new love can help us build new memories, new desires, salve for our past wounds... Though they may never fully heal, if we love again they can help us fully appreciate what we have in our present...