Do you want to be loved?
To be snuggled in the warmth of ‘you belong here’?
Do you want to be loved?
To be seen? Truly, deeply seen with the look of ‘I understand.’
Do you want to be loved?
To be cherished? Deeply cherished in the embrace of ‘I am yours and you are mine.’
Do you want to be loved?
To be known? Fully known, deep dark secrets overwritten by ‘I still choose you.’

Do you know the cost of love?
The weight of a thousand cries tearing flesh apart.
The piercing shrieks of a mother’s pain.
The crown of thorns piercing innocent skin.
The hollow grief of abandonment.
Desertion… You. Are not. Wanted. 
Do you know the cost of love?

Do you know what love will cost you?
It will ask you to surrender. It will ask you to give in.
To embrace heartache. To sit with pain.
It will ask you for what you hold dear. It will ask you to release. 
It will ask you to believe, amidst shattered dreams.It will ask you to hope, though all seems lost.
It will ask you for all you have. That is what love costs.

And then.

It sits quiet in your dark. It holds each tearful joy.
Love makes its home in the very ashes you’d rather destroy.
It embraces you in the warmth of a thousand bonds.
And it whispers, ‘here, you belong’.

Love wraps your insecurities with scandalous hope.
And it whispers, ‘Is anything too difficult for me?’
It knows. Knows it all.
Knows all of you.
And still it whispers, ‘Come home.’
It holds you tight. Holds you in. Holds you close.
And through the embrace it whispers, ‘You are worth the cost’.