The Trenches Of Love

By: E.S.

To love, or to not, is inherently a part of yourself, as it is a lung to breathe or a heart to beat. But to overfill on a realm to which does not contain a threshold for overcapacity leaves room for immense hesitancy. When thinking of roses, it can often be associated with the idea of love. At the young life of a blossom, it is prosperous, beautiful, and admired; however, it possesses various thorns that could at any point make you bleed. Taking that into account, it helps assert that love is an element on this earth that is not one sided alone, but instead has many vast dimensions. At such a young age, it’s easy to be convinced that you are all knowing of the world, especially the moment teenage hood has peaked and the mind can start to deviate from influences of the culture around us. The influence of culture is immense, it bends and shapes our values at will, but once we acquire empiricism, knowledge through our actions, is when we fully acquire a fleshed out perspective on the world. 

Every aspect of the idea of love can be traced to every encounter, where it be the intricacies of the threads of families, to the red string of your lover, love flows in everything and everyone. There are the moments of bliss, such as the first crisp sip of a good coffee, or a brisk walk in the very birth of fall, but at the same time there will always be a hesitancy before jumping in, or a hesitancy of whether to leave. As Donna Tarrt says, “Beauty is terror” and with that, I believe this is the beautiful part of love, knowing how dangerous it is. Knowing you could have an entire amount of peace right in front of you, but at the same time risk an entire vulnerable part of oneself that could be destroyed is a very fragile idea to partake in. However, as they say, what is life without risk? Would people really become as successful as they have been without taking a risk? To love is a risk, and if it is a risk someone is willing to take, well, that is a personal battle. 

Love is scary, love is alive, it is an entity that clasps onto a soul and does not let go. Some claim it may go vacant, but even if it remains dormant it still awakens in us at some point at sometime. Between the positive elements of love and the fear factor it relies on an unsettling feeling. one in which you feel as if you could fall off the very side of a cliff at almost any instance. This is what  romantics encounter during the pursuit of the ideal “perfect” love that we desire.  We fear we may search for an endless eternity and still find our pitchers dry. When that happens what do we do? When one constantly pours their pitcher of water into everyone, making sure everyone is satisfied, while we are left bone dry. The simple answer is to know when and where to place your love appropriately. That is not to say that the act of love itself should be viewed merely as a chess game, no, it should be viewed as a way to know where your soul will flourish the most. Loving is never a mistake, perhaps it can be placed in the wrong places, but loving is never a mistake. To love is to make mistakes, to love is to experience trials and overcome them. You learn through experience, and without those experiences life would become borderline meaningless. 

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A capacity for one’s youth, should never be used as a derogatory notion when it comes to love. If one criticises another simply because of a characteristic it  invalidates their experiences. As they say, you never know what someone has been through, and as such, it is important to keep that in mind when discussing such dense topics that have rivers of emotions tethered to each other. 

So love deeply, genuinely, and know when and where to place it. You will bruise, you will bleed, but in the end it will all be worth it. Because to love in a world full of hurt is one of life’s greatest rewards. 

Much love,

E.S.