Learning to Love Again
Sometimes the best therapist has four paws and a big wet nose
Last night, I watched the movie Must Love Dogs.
It didn’t really have much to do with loving dogs. There wasn’t even an undercurrent theme about loving dogs. Interestingly enough, it was about learning to love again after a betrayal. Dogs are good at that.
A dog has one aim in life… to bestow his heart. ~ J.R. Ackerley
We learn quickly that the star of our show, Sarah, is a divorcé — her husband did the leaving — and her sister is working hard to get her dating again. As a result of these shenanigans, Sarah ends up meeting someone on a dating site, and we join them as they chat over dinner.
As will happen on first dates, the subject of the ex comes up. Wistfully and with a touch of confusion she explains that her husband “just stopped loving me one day.” Jake, the hopefully new beau, says:
“You know, but I think your heart grows back bigger…Once you get the shit beat out of you. And, um, the universe lets your heart expand that way, and I think that’s the function of all this pain and heartache that you go through and you gotta go through that to come out to a better place…”
With that in mind, about three weeks ago, my son called me from college.
