All it takes

Is not love. Is not belief. Is not faith. Is not hope. It takes much more than sum of our positive emotions and best of intentions. It takes lots of caring and sharing.

It takes courage to leap and do the work. To leap, to fall, to fail, and do it all over again. To reach out blindly. To expose our deepest vulnerabilities. To try, even when we doubt and utter, this may not work. It takes courage to hold on to the things dearest to our hearts. It takes even more courage to let them go.

To be brave is not to be fearless. To be brave is to leap despite the fear. To be brave is to try and try again even it makes our hearts bleed and mend over and over again. To be brave is to accept ourselves for all the failings and all the peculiar and weird bits. To be brave is to open our truest and strangest selves to the other person and ask them to accept us for who we are, and be ready to accept any answer. Because everyone must be free to choose.