Dear friends,

There will always be reasons not to love.

Once you see clearly, you notice betrayal.
You notice injustice.
You notice the ways people hurt one another.

And you could easily decide: No more. I’m done.

But that’s not freedom.
That’s armor.

The great teachers did not love because the world was safe.
They loved because it was not.

Loving anyway is not naivety.
It’s fierce trust in what your heart knows.

Honor does not die because it was betrayed.
Compassion does not fade because it was misunderstood.
Kindness does not weaken because it was not returned.

When the world breaks your heart, that does not mean your heart was wrong.

It means it was alive.

And an alive heart will always be more powerful than a protected one.

The work is not to close.
The work is not to harden.
The work is not to withdraw your care because life is difficult.

The work is to become gentler because life is difficult.

That is true strength.

With metta,
Jack

*From my new book out now, All In This Together: Stories and Teachings for Loving Each Other and Our World.