Take Care

What is love? Is it the connection between a mother and her child? A bond between friends? Two people in a relationship? Is it the pride an artist feels for her creation, or the depth between a person and their beliefs?

Love is an infinite amount of things.

But today, I think love is like a ball of clay, given to us at birth to mould throughout our lives, helping us discover what love means for ourselves.

We explore love by holding this clay in our hands, learning to take care of it—stretching it, observing it, enjoying its presence. Keeping it balanced so it doesn’t fall, giving and receiving pieces, allowing it to consume us completely.

To love is to care. The clay teaches us how to cradle our heart’s deepest cravings. It represents everything we care for and shows us how to hold it close.

But some people don’t get a chance to learn about love because their clay was juggled with other things: loss, absence, trauma, pain. Rocks of strain, handed to people who manage to carry on anyway, in a different way.

They may have an idea of love, but they know pain.

So, with rocks in hand, they learn to live. They make friends, explore passions, and maybe even meet someone special. Maybe "the one."

They give love a reason to shine through, pocketing the pieces of pain and starting to mould again. But when asked if they can balance their clay, they say “yes.” They lie.

“I should know this. I’ll learn,” they think.

And so they learn, they mould. But they still lie about balance—to everyone, even themselves.

A lifetime of love is hard to learn for someone else when you haven’t done it for yourself first. But it’s easier to lie than to admit you’re clueless.

Yet when it’s time to let the clay consume them, to open their arms and test the limits of their love, they feel a chill. Cold fingers, cold feet. Closing in on themselves, they feel warm and safe again, pulling out the rocks to remind them of what they know.

The love was almost enough. It was good, great even. But the pain was more familiar, so they were drawn back to it. After all, it keeps them sheltered and hidden.

Love will only be enough when you want it to be—when you’re ready to let go of everything you know and embrace what will help you grow. No one else can do that but you.

If you have love to share, understand who you’re giving it to. Someone may take your love blindly and run away in fear, unsure what to do with it.

---

If your love hasn’t been nurtured, take care of it before thinking about anyone else. If you try to build a house on a shaky foundation, it will eventually crumble.

Heal yourself so you don’t break something, or someone else.