I often say we should love until it hurts.  Sometimes it really happens that way. Love is complicated and so are the people we get to love.  It is a privilege to know the heart of another, to walk through their life with them, to get to hear the good and the frustrating, the process and the learning. It’s an ironical twist to love yet be hurting in that love, to feel that somehow, in the middle of loving, you are causing pain to those who have invited you in. It’s so difficult to have to recognize our own complexity, our own make up and dysfunction in trying to care for others, sometimes forgetting to process our own journey which may weigh our loved ones down.  Somehow, without knowing, we wind up in a place of discomfort in our relating, grasping for, or clinging to, a hope that we can just hold on to those we love, that we won’t lose them.  In essence, I simplify the complexity of loving by narrowing it down to that grasping, that panicked grip of just the knowledge of love, motivated by the fear of losing it. That simplicity deceives. That simplicity causes hurt. Love is too intricate, too majestic to be placed in a box of comfort and good feelings. It is art, beautiful and sometimes undefinable.  Love requires us to embrace the complex, to wrap our arms around the hurt our loved ones feel as well as being aware of our own complicated pain, so as to let the art evolve, constantly transforming, always becoming more beautiful. It is an honor to be a part of that constant evolution. What a humbling invitation we are given when a friend allows us to mingle our art with theirs, to collaborate on a journey of experience and process. It cannot be rushed.  It cannot be taken for granted.  It hurts sometimes.  It’s complicated.  Love is beautiful. It is absolutely worth the effort. It is why we cannot live without each other. We must constantly be thankful for the opportunity to create alongside the artist, to understand that their process of expression may be different than ours and to embrace the complexity that comes with intermingling those processes, creating a masterpiece that is unique to the love we share. I love you my friends. I am honored to get to walk with you through your complication and complexity.  This is a beautiful collaboration!