This evening I found myself reflecting on the people around me whose hearts are brave, and who repeatedly give love a chance time and time again. And because they do, many have found it.

I think each of us has a stack of relationships and related baggage that rivals the size of a novel that we easily pick up and thumb through when we need a reason as to why we shy away from becoming a plus one. I know that I do, and a few of my closest friends have had books of similar size, as well.

And yet one of my best friends is getting married in a few months, and her journey is proof that the human heart is a resiliant, beautiful thing. The words of Tolstoy in Anna Karenina remind me of them, as they embody the honest, pure love that so often eludes others: “If one loves anyone, one loves the whole person just as they are and not as one would like them to be.”

Another of my besties is currently dating someone who makes her smile more brightly than I’ve ever seen her smile before, and of whom she talks in a calm, easy manner — something I’ve never heard her do before until him. If I had to describe the perfect guy for her — and I did, a year or so before they met — it would be him. I was not one bit surprised that when I finally met him, he matched the description perfectly.

Other friends willingly and without hesitation allow love to grow over thousands of miles, something that I’ve tried before but failed valiantly at. I admire their lack of hesitation and their ability to not give the distance a second thought.

They say that it’s easy to fall in love, but hard to find someone to catch you. I agree that the latter is most certainly difficult. But if the former is what’s holding some of us up, perhaps shelving those issue-laden novels is in order so that our hands are free to hold those of another instead of our own baggage.

Tonight I am thankful for those of strong heart around me, for they remind me that if you want something — if you’re ready to go after it and if you’re open when it finds you — you can find great love.