Marisa Donnelly

“It’s deeper than any substances.”

We get so caught up in this idea of true love, that we’re supposed to find it by this certain time, that it’s supposed to look a certain way, that we’ll know, beyond a doubt, what we’re doing and how things will pan out. But love isn’t like that.

Stop apologizing for who you are and just be. Be silly, be strange, be happy, be crazy, be independent, be in love, be unafraid, be nervous, be strong, be okay with leaning on someone else. Be whatever the hell you want. Be you.

See, I’m not good at dating, at small talk, at stuffy dinner dates where we skirt around the deep questions because we don’t want to scare each other off. I don’t care if I scare you off. If I can’t know who you are, then why bother sitting across the table, sharing bites of steak and sips of wine and pretending this is going somewhere when it’s not.

Life is difficult. There’s no denying that. And people need one another—for support, for love, for strength. And you? You are the type of person who provides that, willingly and openly. You are a blessing.

But sometimes you need to be your own blessing, too.

You’re constantly at a crossroads between wearing the only jeans that look good on you (aka: low-rise) or exposing your butt crack to the world. #TheStruggleIsReal

Take comfort in this: No matter where you go, what you do, the mistakes you make, how far you wander off the path, or what you try to wedge between you and God, He will never leave you.

Love and perfection are two different things. Love is real. Finding someone who will drive you crazy, but still make your life wonderful—that’s real.

You have a lot of feelings, a lot of heart. You are too much. But it’s okay to be too much.

You have to be true to yourself, to your hidden (but very real) desires and wishes, and to your bigger-than-life dreams.

“I loved you at your darkest.” — Romans 5:8

An emotional man is a man who is secure in himself. He loves loving others, and he loves others the only way he knows how: wholeheartedly and openly.

You think you have the power to cure things. Like addiction or disease or irrational fears. (PSA: You can’t.)

I don’t want our love to be comfortable. For us to describe ourselves as fine, good, happy. Life is too short for good, fine, and happy.

Because you’ll never have to wonder where she is. (She’s right next to you.)

He doesn’t just make you feel comfortable.

To feel means that you are experiencing life. It means that you are allowing yourself to be a real person. A person with faults and flaws, expectations and emotions. A person that is capable of loving and forgiving, breaking and rebuilding, again and again.

If you find yourself wishing for someone else. If your days feel empty, like something’s missing, if you know that this woman isn’t who you’d want to marry one day, then let her go.