“Have you ever been in love? Horrible, isn't it?

It makes you so vulnerable. It opens your chest and it opens up your heart and it means that someone can get inside you and mess you up. 😜

You build up all these defenses. You build up this whole armor, for years, so nothing can hurt you, then one stupid person, no different from any other stupid person, wanders into your stupid life… You give them a piece of you.

They don't ask for it. They do something dumb one day like kiss you, or smile at you, and then your life isn't your own anymore.

Love takes hostages. It gets inside you. It eats you out and leaves you crying in the darkness, so a simple phrase like "maybe we should just be friends" or "how very perceptive" turns into a glass splinter working its way into your heart.

It hurts. Not just in the imagination. Not just in the mind. It's a soul-hurt, a body-hurt, a real gets-inside-you-and-rips-you-apart pain.

Nothing should be able to do that.
Especially not love. “

- Neil Gaiman, The Kindly Ones (The Sandman, #9)

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Ghostinthemachine · M

I’m reading something by him right now.
Love isn’t horrible, it’s wonderful. Even at its worst, it makes you aware you are alive

CookieCrumbs · F

@Ghostinthemachine

No, love is not horrible.

I think that’s his way of making a point about allowing ourselves to be vulnerable to another, to a feeling for another.

I remember a quote from CS Lewis:
“We love to know we’re alive.”

(Or something like that.)

Ghostinthemachine · M

@CookieCrumbs I think that was his exact quote “We love to know we’re alive…or something like that” 😆

CookieCrumbs · F

@Ghostinthemachine
No. I remember now:
“We love to know we’re not alone.”

We risk vulnerability to feel that we exist with someone.

Ghostinthemachine · M

@CookieCrumbs we seek validation that we are worthy of someone’s affection

CookieCrumbs · F

@Ghostinthemachine
It’s our human nature.
When people say “you complete me.”… they really are just referring to that validation you talked about.

Ghostinthemachine · M

@CookieCrumbs people are a puzzle, with a few pieces missing 😆

CookieCrumbs · F

@Ghostinthemachine
That we are! :)

And that’s what makes our interactions with others interesting.

It is that brokenness we try to fill with the missing piece that makes us respond to different people differently.

Ghostinthemachine · M

@CookieCrumbs yep, and what’s makes meeting new people a curious, interesting, frustrating, disappointing, wonderful adventure