Love always includes boundaries

On a day as particular as this one, I want to explore a side of Love often left out.

It’s the side of Love as ferocious as a mama bear protecting her cub. Or that of a human protecting the neighbor they love.

The side of Love unafraid to call a basket of snakes what it is. Unimpressed with the outside when the inside smells like — pardon me — shit.

It’s the side of Love who, in response to oppression, is courageous enough to look a bully in the eye, ignore their temptations of power, and with precision and clarity, say, “Absolutely not. Stop it.”

It’s the inner knowing of what’s enough. The art of drawing a line in the sand.

This side of Love plainly sees the siren's call of amassing power and swiftly declines as it actively comes against grandiosity, disrupting the domination of the dominated.

It bravely risks its comfort on behalf of those who don’t have the systemic privilege of comfort.

Today, I feel that drumbeat of Love deep inside my chest, emboldening me to stand firm in the corner of the oppressed and purposefully come against the oppressor ‘out there’, but also the one inside me.

See, Love always includes boundaries.

Photo: Nathan Dawang | IG - @nate.dawang

Boundaries not only protect us and those we stand with from the world, but, perhaps more importantly, they protect the world from us. They protect others from our burdened parts capable of what enrages and disgusts us about others: violence, domination, greed, selfishness, pride and grandiosity.

So, on a day as particular as today, may we firmly establish the boundaries of Love by actively advocating against oppression, defying oppressive systems and intentionally protecting the same world from parts of us who perpetuates her pain.