Love doesn’t conquer all;

No amount of love is sufficient to donkey-punch Death and keep our loved ones with us and immune from the effects of aging and disease;

Even short of that, relationships where one or both of the parties thought they were in love end every day;

But we want to believe in the cliche;

We want to believe because it fits with everything we’ve been told about love and how it’s this magical force that will somehow make us whole;

What they don’t tell us about is fear;

Fear is the force to watch;

Fear can twist those we love the most into our worst adversaries;

Fear is what upends our placid arrangements;

We can’t stop fear any more than we can block an earthquake

All we can do instead;

Is;

Rebuild once it has passed.

-30-