the trouble with love is...

i think that's the title of a kelly clarkson song? not sure, but for some reason i have that hook in my head...and i'm not that creative at all, so i know it's not an original tune.

a friend shared some big news with me a while back, and despite her initial fears - that i would be a raging conservative and shun her - i couldn't have been more happy and supportive of her.

her situation reminds me though, that friends - no matter how close - can get mixed up in the drama that we ourselves help create, and that they too are capable of screwing up. this is grace that we should extend to everyone, especially those who are close to us, but it's precisely because they're close - thus, privileged - that we expect more, and are devastated when they can't just be "normal".

what is it with our need for things to return to normal? as if the world would be healed if everything went back to the way it was? are we so opposed to change and the great things that accompany it that we long for a time where we were comforted in less than stellar conditions and relationships? a time where we settled for 'good enough'?

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change;
Courage to change the things I can;
And wisdom to know the difference.