It is better to have loved and lost...

But better still to know the love you have when you have it, and to never take that love for granted.

This weekend taught me a valuable lesson in love: Never assume that the ones you love will always be there. Always treat them with the same love and respect and kindness that you expect in return, and never for a second think that you can take their love for granted.

Love isn't a free-for-all pass, it doesn't grant you the right to say or do anything you please and the other person has to sit there and take it, and it absolutely does not mean that you're required to stay together in order for that love to continue. Just because someone loves you, they must still love themselves more, and not allow their happiness to be compromised in the pursuit of yours.

We have all been in relationships that simply were not healthy. Where one person was trying to do the loving for both sides, in the hopes that it would be enough. But love must always be a two-way street, and great love is a 4-lane highway. Sometimes you both get to enjoy the ride, side-by-side, but at the very least, you can always meet in the middle. One-way love will leave you one behind the other, never beside, never meeting, always chasing.

It is in these relationships where, if the one left chasing is strong enough, they will leave. And well they should. They are tired from always being left behind, trying to make up both sides of love, and being told they are wrong at every turn, every stop, every time they try. It is exhausting trying to keep up with someone who can never seem to be happy with anything, much less the one they claim to love. If the trailing partner is not strong enough, they will stay. And they will be run ragged and left defeated, hoping that one day, the one they love will happen to circle back around, and pick them up.

Always aim for a two-way street. Don't be the one racing ahead, unwilling to try, unwilling to turn around and meet your partner head-on, in the middle. You may lose someone very dear to you, someone you never thought you would ever have to say goodbye to. So love them back. Turn around, slow down, and try with them. Because while you should always know you can depend on one another, you should never take them for granted. They choose to stay. Never give them reason to choose otherwise.

Love may be blind, but it is surely not stupid.