Loved and lost

'Tis better to have loved and lost, than to have never loved at all. -Alfred Lord Tennyson

I appreciate that I've been in love. And no one can ever take that experience away from me. But this is one of those sayings that is open-ended. What about the people who have loved, lost, appreciate it, and want to find love again?

             Is it an option to be grateful and simply live without love? Yes, but I want another option -- to be grateful and fall in love again. I just wonder about the time in between: the waiting, the yearning, and the loneliness.

             Eventually those strong emotions subside and other activities, people, and things begin to fill that void. It's just those moments when you're reminded of that feeling of being in love. Walking down the street, I'll see people holding hands and know that they are truly in love. I smile. 

             For a long time, I encased my heart with a bitterness so strong for other happy couples. My mindset was driven by, why do they get to be happy and in love and I don't? It took quite some time for me to dismiss this, but once I did, I learned to appreciate the amount of love in this world, no matter where I saw it or felt it, or what caused that love. 
              Like Dean Martin sang, "When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that's amore." It shouldn't matter if you've loved and lost. If you believe in love again, then it will come.