Love and be loved. To be loved is to allow oneself to be loved from one’s self. To love regardless of reason. This is its own discipline. Its own courage. Many who can give love freely simultaneously erect walls against receiving or deserving it. Allowing love in — from others, from self, from the parts of life that were once labelled enemy — that is what begins to dissolve the loop at its root.

Many people go exploring after being hurt—especially when the hurt comes from a community that once held them in safety. When one’s been shamed, rejected, misunderstood, or spiritually injured, the soul does what it must to survive. It looks for a place to breath.

When we listen to everything at once—when we refuse to let any single wounded part dominate—we begin to hear something uncomfortable: the ways we've been calling our resistance "love."