You know the words. Repeat them with me.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always preserves.
Except here’s the thing, sugar.
Love is not patient. Or kind. it is not God’s work or a thing of beauty. It is vile, repulsive. You hate it, and yourself. It changes you.
Love is long-distance marriages, common law marriages, people who want to get married but can’t, people who don’t want to get married and do, people who shouldn’t get married; people you never thought would find someone and did.
Love is good decisions for bad reasons and bad decisions for good reasons; it is good sex and bad fights; bad sex and good fights. Love is confusing, uncertain, unexpected. It is different political views, different religions; one partner wanting children and one not.
It is falling for someone you hate; beginning to hate someone you once loved. It is knowing you were meant to be with someone 15 minutes into the first date, and it is not realizing that you are not right for each other until 15 years too late.
Love is a lot of things. It is rain and snow, broken shoes and torn clothes, friendship bracelets and white-gold rings; arguments over dinner and make-up sex, but it is not patient, and it is not kind. It will break you, but you won’t mind. In fact, you will love it.
