what's love got to do with it?

I used to think that song was so stupid because I was naïve enough to think that the Beatles were right -- that all you need is love.

I love the Beatles – and I hate to burst all the Beatles-lovers bubbles – but they lied.

Sometimes, love has very little to do with it. Sometimes love isn’t enough to save someone or to save a relationship. Sometimes love can’t keep two people together because sometimes the hurt and pain and insecurities that the world has shown us are so much bigger than that love.

Loving someone who loves you (or at least says they do) but can’t get it together enough to make a relationship work is one of the worst feelings a person can go through (aside from death, cancer, or AIDS, although I’ve never had cancer, AIDS, or been dead, so really, I can only base this conjecture off of experience). Having someone run away from his or her life because he or she can’t deal and leaves you with the aftermath sucks. And, what sucks even more is loving that person so much, that even though you’re on the path where you know you need to be – establishing a career, figuring out who you are and where you want to be – you can’t stop worrying about him or her. You care about that person so much that you still pray every night that they are happy and healthy. You still want him or her to be well and to take care of him or herself and to find out why he or she ran away in the first place.

Everyone always says love is the greatest thing, but sometimes, it’s the most lonely, hurtful place. Sometimes love is hard. Sometimes it means not getting anything in return. Sometimes love is the worst thing – sometimes it means caring about someone that may or may not care about you and loving someone who can’t see or feel that love in return. Sometimes it means letting the songbird fly, hoping that it will find it’s way back eventually.