Don't Waste The Pretty

“Who do you think you are? Running round leaving scars.

Collecting your jar of hearts. And tearing love apart.

You're gonna catch a cold from the ice inside your soul.

Don't come back for me. Don't come back at all.”

- Christina Perri, Jar Of Hearts

I've begun to make peace with the fact that there are a great many things in this world that I will probably never understand. One of these is the intricate mechanics of love. Like how you can simply wake up one morning and decide that you don't love the person next to you anymore? As simple a concept as love may be, it can also get very complicated. It's so much bigger than you and me - bigger than all of us. And yet there are few things as beautiful in its simplicity as falling in love.

I guess if I really think about it, I can still rationalize how you can fall out of love with someone. People change, needs change and circumstances change - all of which can be a factor. But it can also go beyond that of course. You can fall out of love over something that the other person has done. Like cheating on you.

For me, personally, cheating is inexcusable. If you don't love somebody anymore - fine, be truthful with them and both parties can try and move on. But how can you be with someone, tell them you love them, promise them the sun and the moon, and then go behind their back and be with somebody else? I will never understand that. I don't even want somebody to try and justify it, because it makes me sick. Seriously. I've now seen it happen to two people I know in less than a week. And it tears me apart.

I don't know what I would do if it ever happened to me. I think it would most probably break me. Yet I hope that I would have enough strength and a big enough sense of self worth to walk away, and realise that I deserve better. Is there really any point in sticking around because someone says that they've made a mistake, and that it will never happen again? I'm not saying that people can't change and that they don't deserve a second chance. But 9 times out of 10, a cheater will just cheat again. Because whatever convinced them to gamble with the love they had in the first place is clearly stronger than any level of commitment out there, or just even plain common sense.

If you know that you're being cheated on, you need to love yourself enough to know that it's over when it's over. If you're sticking around because you're the victim of emotional abuse, you need to find the strength within you to pick yourself up and to walk away. Nobody has the power to make you feel less than you are, unless you give it to them. You deserve more than just being somebody's option. You deserve to be somebody's world. And you should never have to settle for anything less. You are beautiful, and you are worthy of love. Love in its purest form.

So please believe that. And whatever you do - don't waste the pretty.