Heartbreak.

Before break-up.

It is 2:09 a.m. I couldn't sleep. Austin came into my room around 1:20-

sobbing about the break up, missing Danny. Austin and Danny have been dating for almost two years now. Danny is the fun, cool kind of guy that everyone likes to be around. Austin is a vibrant beauty who laughs easily. A little more than a year ago Danny was baptized and became a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This made everything perfect and I think that Austin was expecting a ring, not a break up. Her sadness tonight was the realization that she was to blame too, that she hadn't been as nice and as considerate as she should have been, and that she took things for granted. When she is hurting, she doesn't talk much about it. Those few moments when she comes to me upset and needing advice are precious. Tonight it lasted about ten minutes and then it was done and she didn't want to talk about it anymore "because she still loves Danny". Period.

As I laid awake in bed wondering if I said the right things that she needed
to hear (maybe not necessarily the things that she wanted to hear),
for some reason, couldn't help thinking of the movie Pride and Prejudice. And Elizabeth's father telling her that "it is good for a woman to be crossed in love"
at least once.
Maybe that is true. If we have experienced heartbreak at least once, then true, enduring,
real love is all that more precious to us. We begin to understand what it takes to keep it.
I'm not sure what the outcome of all of this will be, but Austin has learned some things and grown and for some reason, growing isn't usually easy.