Similar to other dynamics that truly matter—such as compassion, authenticity, and freedom—there are no experts when it comes to love. Understanding life itself is an invitation to an ongoing apprenticeship; as Ernest Hemingway suggested, “We are all apprentices in a craft where no one becomes a master.” No one becomes a master in the art of loving—but if we’re lucky, we may allow love to teach us.

Let’s look more closely at the features of this "love apprenticeship":

1. Humility

It’s humbling to want to be loved and massively confusing about how to secure it. At the core of being humbled may be the simple truth that we don’t actually secure another person's love; it's an ongoing journey, not a single destination.

And even when someone shows up and is loving us, it's not always entirely clear who they are loving. Do they really know who we are? Do we simply remind them of someone they knew in the past? Are they loving us in the hope that we will, in turn, love them? Or what about when we’re doing the loving? There is often confusion........

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