Loving When It's Hard to Love

Most of us know what it’s like to love on the days when things are going our way, when we feel good about ourselves, when we’ve accomplished something, or when people are doing what we want and appreciate us. I think it’s incredibly valuable to thoroughly and wholeheartedly love when it’s easy to love.
But there’s something immensely empowering, liberating, and dignified about learning to keep my heart open to myself and others even on the days that feel really hard.
The greatest gift I can give myself or others is the ability to keep offering compassion and mercy, even when it seems like I am in the midst of hell and mercy and compassion feel impossible.
This painting is a reminder that we are only truly happy when we are loving, accepting, and kind to ourselves and to the people in our world.
The canvas holds a glowing heart at its center…soft pinks, radiant yellows, and vibrant purples pulsing against deep blues and fiery oranges. Brushstrokes swirl and flow around it like energy moving through difficulty, yet the heart remains open, luminous, and alive. It doesn’t shrink or close. It stays present, radiating even in the midst of the storm.
This is what loving when it’s hard looks like: not denying the pain or the challenge, but choosing to keep the heart open anyway. It is the quiet strength that turns hell into a place where compassion can still bloom. It is the dignity of staying kind when everything in you wants to close off. It is the freedom that comes when love becomes bigger than the moment.
May this painting remind you…and all of us…that the deepest happiness comes not from everything going perfectly, but from the courage to keep loving anyway.