Have you ever been in love? Horrible, isn't it? It makes you so vulnerable. It opens up your chest and it opens up your heart and it means someone can come inside you and mess you up. You build all these defenses, you build a whole armor so that nothing can hurt you, and then some stupid person, no different than any other stupid person, wanders into your stupid life... You give them a piece of you. They didn't ask for it. They did something stupid one day, like kiss you or smile at you, and then your life is no longer yours. Love takes you hostage. It gets inside you. It eats you up and leaves you crying in the dark, so a simple phrase like "maybe we should just be friends" turns into a shard of glass that makes its way into your heart. It hurts. Not just in your imagination. Not just in your mind. It's a heartache, a real pain that comes inside you and tears you apart. I hate love. ?? Neil Gaiman in "The Sandman"/
Ah, those words from Neil Gaiman have deep emotional weight, don't they?
Vulnerability

I built walls, higher than the sky, A cold armor, a soul of steel, And yet, love, in a reckless step, Opened me like a flower, in the wind stirred.

It does not ask permission, it penetrates deep, In the heart, in the mind, in a living and left abyss, It catches you and binds you, like a wave of the sea, A secret storm, a sweet despair.

And when it leaves, shards remain in the soul, Shards of glass, sharp, in the walk, But from the pain, the light is reborn, A new beginning, in the arms of destiny.