In order to love, one must be willing to feel pain

In order to love, one must be willing to feel pain, to suffer along with the one you love.

This is not optional.

There’s probably a reason why maternal love is often hailed as one of the purest and most poignant forms of love: It starts with pain, and often continues in pain —

Each time a child falls ill or gets hurts (which is, let’s face it, pretty much all the time…life hurts), there is usually a resonant pain in the mother’s own soul.

Most mothers are willing to literally suffer and die for their children.

But most humans are not willing to do this for anyone else.

We humans are usually so eager to avoid pain that it stunts our ability to love. So when we find someone long-suffering, that is willing to suffer long with us, the way Michael did with Ed, it’s incredibly powerful. It heals.

View at Medium.com