A little time goes a long way.
With time being our only truly non-renewable resource, how we spend it matters.
If we use our time doing our best to avoid intimacy, connection, and deep, meaningful relationships, we should not be overly surprised when we find ourselves alone and lonely.
If, on the other hand, we use our time getting closer with others, getting to know them, and allowing them to get to know us, we have will created an investment with our time.
This does not necessarily mean that our investment will always pay off, especially not immediately.
Some relationships will simply never work out no matter how hard we try.
It does mean, however, that we give ourselves the opportunity to truly experience life in all of its depth.
In order to this, however, we have to make ourselves vulnerable.
We have to let our guard down.
We have to open up and risk being hurt.
If we are unwilling to do this, we will never know the best that life has to offer.
We will never experience the depths of joy, connection, and companionship if we do not expose ourselves to the possibility of losing them and the pain that will surely bring us.
Conversely, in attempting to shield ourselves from the pain that comes from intimacy denied, betrayed, or broken, we still cannot truly protect ourselves against the despair, loneliness, and isolation that comes with it.
In fact, the very act of self-protection all but guarantees that we will experience these things, but without any of the benefits of their opposites.
If we want to experience the best of life, the best of ourselves, and the best of others, we have to invest in our relationships and this starts with giving away some of our time.