Ah, love. Sweet, pure, healing, spiritual…we can’t see it
with our eyes, we can’t touch it with our fingertips, and yet it is
unquestionably there. It stirs somewhere between my head and chest when I see a
fellow human suffering – hold my baby in my arms for the very first time –
watch the figure of my lover walking toward me smiling – behold a problem
solved or pain erased without my effort.
Such a beautiful and real thing is love. Probably its most
wondrous quality is that it usually is focused on another person or object,
seeking to bless the other as much as it does me. Thus, love is a gift that
spreads outward and can transform both the giver and recipient. Precious and seemingly
so fragile, but able to withstand and endure great strain, great sacrifice.
Sadly though, the gift of love - the source of which can
only be God – can cause great pain. We give our love to the wrong person, who
spits it back because they can’t or won’t embrace it. It seems to disappear into
a bottomless pit, fruitless and unreturned. The daughter who rejects my love
because she is lost on her own journey. The friends who can’t appreciate it
because they’ve never truly recognized it in themselves. Those people who
accept my love, but cannot reciprocate because of their slavery to other forces
like drugs or money or sex. Tragically, we have all had our love declined at
times.
Having my feelings be rejected is traumatic, certainly.
Depending on the intensity of affection I’ve given or tried to give, having it
refused or misused is capable of rendering knife-like damage to my emotions.
Unreturned love is not a new phenomenon to me, yet on every occasion it occurs,
the pain feels as fresh and keen as if I were a baby being slapped or hollered
at for the first time. Sometimes the agony feels so overwhelming, I wonder if
I’ll ever be able to love again.
But I know also that to love or not is my choice.
After each debacle in this regard, the same question comes
into my mind: what happens to the love I feel – so intensely sometimes, it
almost is palpable – that is rejected, unrequited, spurned? Does it simply die
like unpicked fruit withering on a vine? Or does it live on somewhere in my
soul’s deep recesses, out of view and out of thought? Does it drift upward, back
to God, who created it in first place? Where does all this “wasted” love go? Is
there some emotional stock-pile where it’s “archived” for posterity? Or is it deposited
into a spiritual landfill of sorts, where it’s layered over with denial, anger,
and fear, until it can’t be seen or touched without some in-depth digging? The
question comes to me, back and back and back.
Obviously, this is one of those questions with no answer… Or
perhaps everyone’s answer is different. For me, I like to believe that no love
is ever wasted. Every time I love someone or something, regardless of what
happens or does not happen as a result of that love, I am changed in a positive
way. My emotional range is widened; my soul expanded by this miraculously
selfless feeling. I become a more understanding and compassionate person. To
know love is, to me, getting a glimpse of God. And if I am hurt as a result of
that love, God sends His grace to soften the blow, as well as another big
portion of love to keep for myself this time. Because at that point, I need it
to heal my own wounds.
This is why, no matter how many times I’ve “loved and lost,”
I’ll not shut down my heart, nor close myself off from loving again. It’s
always worth it, whatever the cost or consequence. In fact, for me it’s a necessity
to stay alive as a whole human being. I know that ultimately, any love I can
feel – even if it doesn’t come back to me from a person – has somehow made me
better, made me just a little bit more of a reflection of its Source.