Nobody wants to hear about love.

Not really.

Not real love, anyway.

Because real love is never all that pretty like it is in the movies, or in a song.

Love is about living outside of yourself, about sacrifice, and about giving something up.

It is often times about giving everything up.

There is probably more opportunity for love in cancer wards and nursing homes than there ever will be in wedding ceremonies and birthday parties.

We don’t learn to love each other well in the easy moments. Anyone is good company at a cocktail party. But love is born when we misunderstand one another and make it right, when we cry in the kitchen, when we show up uninvited with magazines and granola bars, in an effort to say, I love you.

–Shauna Niequist, Bread and Wine (Amazon)