How many songs, poems, short quotes & brokenhearted rants are dedicated to the belief that "love hurts" or that love is the source of pain and heartache? People vow to never love again for the fear of that sting of pain and uncertainty that comes in it's supposed ending. But if we dive deeper, beyond the pain we can actually see that it is not love that hurts at all. Love is what feels good, love is what heals, love is what sends us soaring into new dimensions and gives us hope and excitement. The apparent absence of love is what hurts when a relationship ends. But a breakup, separation or even death does not cause an absence of love. Whether it is a person, animal or even a place we are attaching ourselves to we feel the sting when they leave, because we loved them but also because we attach ourselves in such a way that we allow them to become a part of our identity. Here’s the thing, we can belong with one another, for a period in time, but the truth is that no one ever has or ever will belong to another. It is a fear of the new, the uncertain and even ourselves that causes such pain when the attachment is released, usually from one side. The ending of a relationship can cause us to question our very existence, which is actually excellent if we use this internal inquiry for the greater good. But it can also leave us feeling insecure, inadequate and hopeless. This is the time where it is most important to ask the questions: "Who am I?", "What do I really want?", and "What is the lesson here?". It is easy to get caught up in what feels like it is missing but going deeper will help you see that there is a whole world inside of you just waiting for you to arrive. What if instead of believing that love hurts, you choose to believe that love is the one thing that heals all and connects all and never goes away? When we become attached to someone else we open ourselves up to the very real possibility of the pain that comes when separation occurs. Can you love without attachment? Yes, you can. This doesn't equate to caring less or loving less. Loving without attachment means you can actually honour and value the other person and the relationship even more because your fear of the separation does not rule the relationship. Being able to let someone go when the time has come is an act of love in itself, not the absence of it. Once we have been stung by the loss of a love story it can be easy to carry that with us into further relationships and even cling more tightly with the raw knowing of how this story too could end. But the tighter you hold and the more you attach yourself the less room the relationship has to flourish and the more you risk a bigger sting if and/or when the relationship doesn't work out. Not everyone is meant to stay forever, in fact, none of us are and not everything is meant to last forever, at least not physically. It is in learning to detach from the outcome and enjoy the pure nature of love & loving in it's presence here and now that the magic lies. Love never goes away; dynamics may change, relationships end, people pass on but love it always remains in one form or another. Love is not a person, it is not a circumstance, it is not a place or a relationship, it is who you are at your eternal core. Love does not hurt, love does not fail, love prevails and when amongst it all you feel completely lost, love is what will guide you home again. What are you attaching to that you can release now to fully enjoy in it's purest form?