Remember: Love Is Worth The Risk 💕

'Yes, love is terrifying—but it’s also beautiful. Why else would we seek it the way we do?'

Welcome to the Collective World X Thought Catalog Newsletter. Collective World is a one-of-a-kind creative network powered by the minds and voices behind The Thought & Expression Company. We’re so glad you’re here.

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Let’s be honest for a moment here: Love is scary.

Love is messy. It’s reckless and uncontrollable. It hurts us just as often as it heals us; it often breaks us before it builds us. And sometimes it changes us in ways that can never be undone.

Yes, love is terrifying—but it’s also beautiful. Why else would we seek it the way we do?

jannerobinson

A post shared by Janne Robinson (@jannerobinson)

And yet as much as we want it, we also try to protect ourselves from it. We build walls around our hearts in hope that we might be able to protect ourselves from the fall. We keep one foot out the door so it won’t feel as disappointing once we’re locked out. We try so hard to be the one who loves less, who cares the least, because in our minds, that is how we preserve ourselves. That is how we win.

And just like that, we lose.

Because when you let yourself only love in increments, are you truly allowing yourself to love at all? Or are you simply indulging in an ideal without letting yourself fully experience the truth of it? It’s like skimming through a book without truly reading the sentences—we may understand the gist of the meaning but lose the full impact.

Darling, yes, love is scary, but I promise you this—love is worth the risk.

Love is worth allowing yourself to be vulnerable, even if it opens you up to the hurt. Because it also opens you up to the beautiful things too—to the understanding, to the tenderness, to the genuineness. To being seen and heard and loved for exactly who you are. To the heart-stopping moments and the butterflies in your stomach and those moments where you feel like the only two people on the planet. And that is something you deserve.

jannerobinson

A post shared by Janne Robinson (@jannerobinson)

And maybe it will hurt. There is always a chance that you’ll walk away with your heart broken. As Summer Chance wrote, “You cannot love so deeply without accepting the prospect of grieving that same love. To truly devote yourself to such raw emotion and to truly feel all of the intense and passionate emotions that come with it, you have to be okay with the grief.” But is the fear of this pain worth giving up every beautiful part? Is it worth never experiencing love in the first place?

Be brave enough to not think about the ending. Be brave enough to give in to the sparks without worrying how you’ll be burned. Be brave enough to not care about winning or losing, because love was never about that anyway. Love is a verb, an action, an in-the-moment thing—what matters is here and now and all the beautiful things that can be made in this moment.

And next time you find yourself afraid to love, remember these words by Lee Tshetlo: “Authentic, wholesome love is hard work—I get it. I also believe that fearless love is a tool we all need to make those wholesome relationships worth staying in. Love and fear can never coexist, that much I know. Some of the best relationships I have seen evolve and strengthen over time have one thing in common: Loving your person fearlessly.”

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What We’re Reading This Week 📖💛

• “Books are letters in bottles, cast into the waves of time, from one person trying to save the world to another.” — Amal El-Mohtar

• “I could see a process happening in front of me that was familiar. An idea coming to life. Like a song or piece of music. People rallying around to do what was best for the song. Holding it aloft.” — Warren Ellis

• “In case you forgot, you deserve the kind of love you’ve been giving. You deserve the same effort, the same attention, the same kindness, the same feelings and the same affection.” — Rania Naim

• “What we gave each other wasn’t enough, but it was still beautiful for while it lasted, wasn’t it?” — Lacey Ramburger

• “It takes work sometimes, to love the people you trust, and to trust the people you love.” — Heather Havrilesky

For more reading recommendations follow Quote Catalog where we find and file the best things to read every single day.

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Let us leave you with this:

“Darling, I hope you love—love so hard you may grieve for years and years and not because you’re weak or you’re soft but because you opened your heart with ferocious might and once the salt of the tears has run from your blood I wish you to exhale and fall into the heart of someone new. 

Risk—darling, risk.” — Janne Robinson

I hope you choose to let love in 🌸

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