Love And Loss

In order to fully open our hearts to love,

we must accept the reality of loss.

After all, at some point

in the indeterminable future,

We will Lose

everything that we hold dear.

We can refuse to accept this basic fact of life,

But to do so keeps us from truly living,

And from the depth

Of connection that we so desperately crave.

The only solution is to allow

Ourselves to be fully vulnerable,

Fully naked

With the stark and painful reality of impermanence,

Which includes the reality

of our own eventual death and

The loss of everyone we love.

This is not morbid,

as we have come to believe,

It is part of the dichotomy of life.

Birth and death,

Beauty and ugliness.

To live fully is to embrace it all.

What rises up,

Will fall away…

Of this, we can be certain.

To live with an open heart

Is to embrace life

and death

Equally,

Allowing ourselves to be fully

Vulnerable and naked

With the stark and painful

Reality of impermanence.

In order to fully open our hearts to love,

We must accept the reality of loss.