The People Who Have Been Hurt Before Often Love The Hardest

This heart of mine is bruised. It has been left out in the cold, alone and abandoned. It has been fractured, broken, overwhelmed by waves of hurt.

But though I have seen the storms, the rain does not wash me into the river; I cannot be taken off to the sea. I stand where you see me, still and stable, so that I can tell you what it’s like to be drenched to the bone and still find a way to feel warmth in the sun.

This heart of mine has endured, and as a result is capable of the deepest and most authentic love imaginable.

I love hard.

It is the only way that I know how. Giving everything I have, showing my true colors and standing in the path of the storm. There are a million reasons to put up walls — to protect ourselves from letting anyone in, by carrying the blemishes of our past love and hurt into our new relationships. Closing the door to our hearts, we might remain whole. We might diminish the risk of hurt. We might also diminish the chance for true, authentic, unapologetic love.

Those of us who knowingly open ourselves up to pain believe wholeheartedly in giving our whole heart. Any love worth its weight in heartache is worth it.

This is what it is to love with everything we have, hard and fast and with our whole hearts. To allow ourselves to be taken down by the unpredictability of the storm, to stand in its wake, vulnerable, raw and willing to absorb the possibility of an aching heart. To love with abandon is not for the weak. There is the greatest possibility for hurt, yes. But a little rain is not enough to stop us from loving to the fullest.