After I Do

by Taylor Jenkins Reid

I could never fault anyone for doing anything in the name of their own truth.”

“Isn’t it nice,” he says, “once you’ve outgrown the ideas of what life should be and you just enjoy what it is?”

You do what you do. I can’t live your life for you. All I can do is love you.”

Unconditional love is the freedom to follow your heart and still have a home.

I’ve come to realize that resentment is malignant. That it starts small and festers. That it grows wild and unfettered inside of you until it’s so expansive that it has worked its way into the furthest, deepest parts of you and holds on for dear life.

It may seem hard, almost impossible, to love without the expectation of love in return, but once you have figured out how to do it, you will find that you really are a parent.

Maybe it doesn’t matter if you need someone during the everyday moments of your life. Maybe what matters is that when you need someone, they are the one you need. Maybe needing someone isn’t about not being able to do it without them. Maybe needing someone is about it being easier if they are by your side.

Why do we do this? Why do we undervalue things when we have them? Why is it only on the verge of losing something that we see how much we need it?

“Just because you can live without someone doesn’t mean you want to,”

Look at the things we are capable of in the name of the people we love.

All that matters in this life is that you try. All that matters is that you open your heart, give everything you have, and keep trying.