Tell me your heart doesn’t catch when reminded of loss, and don’t we all try so hard to grow protective barriers against the reminder? Little walls, armored and reinforced, made of differing degrees of thickness, made of differing substances, depending on possible direction of attack. A castle constructed in the wake of pain.

There is a strange admiration given to those who have the hardest hearts, and a contemptuous familiarity granted a bleeding heart, when by all rights and in a just world, the heart unafraid of love and loss should be paid the most respect. Perhaps because the hardest of hearts at one time had the softest of centers, and was pierced through? And now disregards and rebuffs any and all possible cruelty.

We all want love, and seek it in different forms, be it respect or pride or power, but the only true happiness can come from freedom. If we imprison ourselves to reduce the chances of pain, then we also reduce the possibility of love, for ourselves and others.

Be free.