Anyone who has gone through the agony of losing someone he/she loves so much will still wish against all odds to have that love back again. But, sometimes a love lost is a love gone forever. No amount of hope can bring back to life a relationship that just died a natural death.

Love can be very treacherous. After denying ourselves of so much and after standing up against the will of our very own families, love can fade without any warning and leave us hurting, wondering where we have gone wrong. Our heart can be blinded by a love that has gone beyond reason. Call it unconditional, but the fact that we are silently hurting inside doesn't give justice to the sacrifices we had to put up just to keep him/her. We cannot live by the promises they make. After all, they may all be empty and we'd just be hoping for a love that has long been gone, and probably will never be back again.

It will never be easy to forget a loved one. All our efforts in dis remembering can be wiped out by just one insignificant display of attention that means nothing to them but may mean the whole world to us. We have to accept the certainty that they're gone, that they don't belong to us anymore. I know it's difficult and tormenting but our wounds will never heal it we don't stop it from bleeding. We have bled more than we should have. Now, it's time to heal, time move on. Acceptance is never complete if we still nurture hatred in our hearts.

Set yourself free. Let your heart spread its wings and fly. Remember, it may rain for forty days and forty nights, but it will not rain forever. One day, the pouring will stop and there will be plenty of branches where we can find rest. One of these is where we will build your nest and start over again. It's never too late. Remember, we may find love and lose it but when love dies, we never have to die with it.

THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY

In your life, you’ll make note of a lot of people. Ones with whom you shared something special, ones who will always mean something.

There’s the one you first kissed, the one you first loved, the one you lost your virginity to, the one you put on the pedestal, the one you’re with…and the one that got away.

Who is the one that got away?

I guess it’s that person with whom everything was great, everything was perfect, but the timing was just wrong. There was no fault in the person, no flaw in the chemistry, but the cards just didn’t fall the right way.

I believe in the fact that ending up with someone, finding a longtime partner that is, does not lie merely in the other person. I can actually argue that an equal part, or maybe even the greater part, has to do with you being ready to settle down and commit to someone in a way that goes beyond the little niceties of giddy romance.

When you’re not ready to commit in that mature manner, it doesn’t matter who you’re with, it just doesn’t work. Small problems become big; inconsequentials become deal breakers simply because you’re not ready and it shows. It’s not that you and the person you’re with are no good; it’s just that it’s not right, and little things become the flashpoint of that fact.

Then one day you’re ready. You really are.

And when this happens you’ll be ready to settle down with someone. He or she may not be the most perfect, they might not be the brightest star of romance to ever have burned in your life, but it’ll work because you’re ready. It’ll work because it’s the right time and you’ll make it work.

And it’ll make sense, it really will.

So that day comes when you’re finally making sense of things, and you find yourself to be a different person. Things are different, your approach is different, you finally understand who you are and what you want, and the time has truly arrived. And mind you, there’s no telling when this day will come. Hopefully you’re single but you could be in a long-term relationship, or married with three kids, it doesn’t matter.

All you know is that you’ve changed, and for some reason, the one that got away, is the first person you think about.

You’ll think about them because you’ll wonder, "What if they were here today?" You’ll wonder, "What if we were together now, with me as I am and not as I was?"

That’s what the one that got away is.

The biggest "What If?" you’ll have in your life.

If you're married, you’ll just have to accept the fact that the one that got away, got away. Believe me, no matter how fairy tale you think your marriage is, this can happen to the best of us.

But hopefully you’re mature enough to realize that you’re already with the one you’re with and this is just another test of your commitment, one that will strengthen your marriage when you get past it. Sure, you’ll think about him/her every so often, but it’s all right.

It’s never nice to live with "might have been," but it happens.

Maybe the one that got away is the one who’s married. In which case it’s the same thing. You just have to accept and know that your memories of that person will probably bring a nice little smile to your lips in the future when you’re old and gray and reminiscing.

But if neither of that is the case, what do you do if it’s not yet too late?

Simple…find him, find her. ‘Coz, the very existence of a "one that got away" means that you’ll always wonder what if you got that one. Ask him out for coffee; ask her out to a movie.

You’d be surprised, you just might be "the one that got away" as well for the person who is your "the one that got away".

If the timing is finally right, it would be a great feeling, in the end, to be able to say to someone, "Hey you, you’re the one that almost got away".