Vulnerability

“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.”

-C. S. Lewis

I think vulnerability is a tough issue for most people.  Nobody wants to be hurt or humiliated but being hurt is part of feeling and feeling is what being alive is all about.  It is unrealistic to go through life thinking you cannot get hurt.  Anything that causes you joy could also cause you pain, and not necessarily directly.  For example, you have a cat that you love, and then it dies.  Cats have shorter lives that humans.  It's a part of life and we must accept it.  That is a simplified example but it gets to the point.    I think maybe people get caught up in just feeling good, which isn't a bad thing, I think it's normal but maybe we are raised or socialize to avoid feeling sadness.

"God breaks the heart again and again until it stays open." 

-Haziat Inayat Khan

I'm simply writing this to remind us all that pain is a part of life and we should embrace it.  The fear of pain causes many people to close their hearts to others or to the world.  I guess the fear of pain is in a way a fear of being vulnerable.  Put yourself out there with good intentions and experience what the world has to offer you.   

xx

Invest in people who love you

Time is money, they say.  However, I will argue that time is more valuable than money because it is limited to an unknown amount.  Mysterious.  But seriously, we don't know how much time we have on this earth and we ought to spend our time wisely.  Also, there are emotions involved in time.  This might sound complex or like a third dimension but it is simply that you can feel good or bad, happy or sad when and/or after spending time doing something.  

Spend your time with people who love you.  Genuinely love you.  People who wish the best for you and want to see you smile.  People who think of you constantly and want you to be happy.  People who understand you or try.  Love isn't smothering another person or spending 24/7 with them, it's realizing that people need space and it's loving and respecting another person enough to give them that space.  But being close enough or available for you.  People who truly love you don't guilt trip you into hanging out with them because your love is a mutual one, they understand that you have things going on in your life and they do, too.  They also understand that you will reach out to them when you are able because you enjoy spending time with them.   

It might sound selfish but it's not.  It's self-preservation.  And just like your time, your self is limited and must be nurtured.