Love is an attitude towards someone that, while wholely accepting who they are, anticipates, and willingly labours towards, their most fulfilling and enriching growth. Towards, we might say, the disclosure and expression of ‘who they are, fully and completely’. Towards, their wholely mindful, and wholehearted, liberation.
But growth is ongoing, and growth is change, and growth requires that we never settle, or get too comfortable. It requires a fearlessness, a relentless willingness for transformation, and an ongoing openness and vulnerability to others. Openness and vulnerability are, not infrequently, rewarded with pain, and so it is no wonder that there is a resistance to growth. But the price for freedom from pain is freedom from growth.
Growing … pains.