It only hurts us to love when we do so with expectation. And that’s not really love, anyway. Love has no expectations, no qualifiers, no conditions. Love is pure, untouched by our mind’s demands, untainted by our desperation and fear. Love can only be beautiful. It can only be divine. No, love doesn’t hurt, not when it’s real. Love empowers. It strengthens. It reminds us who we really are and why we’re really here. Love, more than anything else in this entire world, heals us.

I had to break to pieces, so I could reassemble even stronger.

My fear whispered to me, I am just trying to protect you.I whispered back, I know, but I’m stronger than you think.

I’ve finally figured out a way to stand strong on my own.

and then there was that time you sucked down your fear, breathed into it, faced it with a courage that moves mountains, and you stepped right into that thing, that situation, that experience moments and forever before had crippled and controlled you, and had you believing you could never rise up to meet it. but you did, because you could. and you will again, because you can. yes, you can.

Such beautiful strength lives in uncompromising humility.