Don’t give into your fear.  If you do, you won’t be able to talk to your heart.

Paulo Coelho, in The Alchemist

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I say “yes” to Coelho’s words, but I add this: not only will you not be able to talk to your heart but you will be unable to hear the heart of another.  Yes, even another who loves you deeply.

In love it is necessary to disassemble barriers, those walls that we have built from a past of hurt, disapproval, insult, rejection …

Love cannot be had from a tight defensive perimeter.  In defense one has limited access to one’s own heart and even less access to the heart of another.

Think about love.  One who loves you holds in them past injuries that they no longer wish to be barriers.  And, in the daring act of loving they seek only that they be heard, be received so they might rest in you who they love, and you might rest in them.

While the geometry of this may seem difficult – discard the barriers, so you may know love and receive it.

Shalom.