Love Hurts

GRATEFUL GIRL'S THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:
"Love hurts, love scars. Love wounds and marks. Any heart not tough or strong enough to take a lot of pain, take a lot of pain. Love is like a cloud, it holds a lot of rain ..."

Clearly, rock band Nazareth was referring to a failed romantic relationship when they sang "Love Hurts" for the first time back in 1976. Yes, I was little but I remember 1976; it was the bicentennial, for heaven's sake. I digress.

The thing about love is that it comes in all shapes and sizes and sorts; and it absolutely does hurt sometimes. Often through disruption or ending by one or more of the following causes: betrayal, neglect, disintegration, separation or some other type of irrecoverable damage or, of course, the hardest of all pills to swallow: mortality.

Today it has been exactly seven years since we lost our puppy Max. Max was an absolutely beautiful, playful, rugged and amazing Boxer...for the first two years of his life. Then he began to show signs of the rare form of lymphoma which claimed his life. The hardest part of losing Max was watching a 10-year-old Kyle tell him GOODBYE, BUDDY. Max wasn't even three years old.

I don't think I ate for two weeks after Max died. I remember thinking, "I wish I'd never yelled at him." "I wish we had tried harder to take him on vacation with us instead of putting him in the kennel while we were away." "I wish I'd let him eat more people food." 

Especially with the fur-covered members of your family, you are acutely aware that someday, you will be saying "So long" to this loved one...and much sooner than you wish. But losing young Max was a harsh yet effective reminder about not taking even one day for granted with those you love...about not worrying so much about mud on the floor as smiles on faces...about caring less if there is a tear in the sofa and more if there is a tear rolling down someone's cheek, you dig?

Max taught me that having had love and then being forced to part with it doesn't mean it wasn't worth having -- even if for only a short time. I'd never have traded our happy days with Max; no matter how brief. Oh, and another important reminder ala Max? Sometimes, you need to just roll around on the grass and bask in a warm, sunny day, period.

Yep; love hurts - especially when the time comes to say Goodbye. The good news is love never truly ends...and I know I'll see Maxie again someday. <3

JN 15:1-8 - Jesus said to his disciples, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower. He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit. “You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. “I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.”

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