Anna Panchenko

Even Though You’ve Been Hurt, I Hope You Don’t Give Up On Love

It’s easier to hide. It’s easier to close yourself off. Because once you get hurt, you learn how to protect yourself. You do whatever you can to avoid feeling hurt again. You sink. You guard. And you build up walls that keep people away from your delicate heart.

You are doing what is natural. Protecting yourself is in a lot of ways the smartest thing you can do. You should protect yourself, and your heart, and your sweet soul that allows you to be so soft, so open, and so full of love. You should keep yourself safe. And you shouldn’t let those in whose only intent is to take and take with no regard how they leave you. You shouldn’t give your heart to those who are greedy. Who plan to take advantage of the love and companionship you have to offer only to rip it away once they’ve decided one day they’ve had enough. As if your love is something disposable.

You should protect your heart, but you shouldn’t give up on love.

Because despite being hurt in the past, you deserve love. You deserve the kind of love that makes you feel safe and warm, like the way a new candle dances in a dimmed room. You deserve the kind of love that doesn’t make you question where you stand and what you mean to someone. You deserve to feel like someone’s priority. Without a doubt. Without the constant lingering worry of being enough for them. You deserve the kind love that makes you feel like you’re enough. The kind of love that isn’t extinct of flaws, but the kind you aren’t afraid of either as you know you will work through anything.

And this love exists. This love is out there for us all. We each have the capacity to give and offer this kind of special partnership.

And while your heart may still be healing from the past, you mustn’t give up on love. You will find the kind of love where things feel peaceful. Where you aren’t responsible for each other’s happiness, but you can help but make each other happy. Because you’ve created a life together. You’ve created a space to allow love to flow between the two of you, like a stream. Like a wind in a tree. No restraint, just peace.

So I hope you don’t give up on love. I hope there’s a part of you that still believes you, too, are meant to find that kind of love you yearn for. Because you are. You do deserve love.

Because love is one of the most powerful and beautiful feelings we can experience in this life. Love, while can be cruel, tragic, and painful, can also be magical, euphoric, and make us truly feel connected and with purpose.

You didn’t deserve the hurt you’ve endured, but you do deserve to rebuild and regain a chance at love.