Better to Have Loved and Lost

This post is for my friend, K, who just lost a man she loved. 

She let him into her home and life without reservation or hesitation.

She took a risk with an open heart and mind - the only way to truly love. 

Imagine what this world would look like if we all loved like that.

*********************************************  

 Alfred Lord Tennyson

(From "In Memoriam")
I envy not in any moods
   The captive void of noble rage,
   The linnet born within the cage,
That never knew the summer woods;

I envy not the beast that takes
   His license in the field of time,
   Unfetter’d by the sense of crime,
To whom a conscience never wakes;

Nor, what may count itself as blest,
   The heart that never plighted troth
   But stagnates in the weeds of sloth;
Nor any want-begotten rest.

I hold it true, whate’er befall;
   I feel it, when I sorrow most;
   ‘T is better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all.