Love Poem 18
When it comes to
being in love
there are a few things everyone needs to know, but are
rarely told and maybe not even consider until they find themselves
in that
great
sinkhole.
First, every flaw you have can be
magnified
a hundred times and will land you in hot water and
sometimes
it won’t matter what has been said or done
because you’ve already dug yourself
such a hole
through being defensive and you
need to be humble.
Listen.
You might be the asshole.
It’s okay.
Chop the wood.
Carry the water.
Keep working.
No love worth having was ever built from anything but
sweat.
The trials are trials and you may feel like
you can never do enough time
and
you may never see grace for time served
and you may feel like
you are swinging a hammer,
but this is
not a sentence,
this is about working out the kinks,
breaking the moulds that direct your energy.
It hurts and it hurts a lot, but
the labour will deliver
That, I promise.
Second,
there will be days where it feels like
you have a sign on your back: KICK ME.
And on those days,
it doesn’t matter
what you say
or
what you do
or
how much you try and get that sign off your back.
You’re going to be kicked and
you just have to deal with it.
Third,
no one really understands love and no one understands how it works
and you will have many days where you will ask:
are any of these headaches worth it?
And that answer really depends on
who you ask
because there are a lot of people in this world
who will tell you
oh, love is the greatest thing in the world;
and there are just as many who will say:
ew, no way. Love ruined my life.
Whatever the case is,
you don’t find many people who will just say:
well, you know, it’s okay, I can take it or leave it.
Fourth,
love has its way of letting you know when you’re in it,
and you don’t know and won’t know until you’re in it.
The fifth thing ties into the fourth, in that
you need to be willing to wander for it
and you need to know it isn’t called
falling in love
for no reason.
There is no way to dip your toe into the pool,
there is no way to have just a little taste,
and there is no
oh-I-just-wanted-to-give-it-a-try-and-see-what-it-is-like.
The sixth thing is that
falling is dangerous
and falling from your own height can kill you,
so how high is the fall from a state of not being in love?
How far down will we fall?
The last thing is fearfully easy:
Who knows. Who cares. Let go and
see where you land
and
see who is there to catch you.
Fall with as much abandon as you can
because it will be over before
you know it.
There are a lot of other things no one ever tells you about love,
but those seven are a good start.
