The Power of Love Denied

Except for those who marry their high school sweetheart and live happily-ever-after, most humans experience love affairs that, for whatever reason, do not work out. Though we go on to marry or live with someone else, that unrequited love haunts our life.

Unlike the love that leads to marriage, its intensity is never tainted by the stress and challenges that come with balancing our careers and family life. Rather, it is forever associated with our youth, when we were free and blissfully unaware of the emotional turmoil that lay ahead. Embellished over the years, the failed relationship resurfaces in our memories, fueling nostalgia and causing us to question the choices that we made.

Of course, had that youthful romance led to marriage, someone else would now represent the love we were denied; it is the nature of the human condition. Indeed, deep down, we may know that the past relationship would not have lasted but love is immune to intellectual reasoning. The pain of love denied is a powerful and unrelenting emotion.