Going out to another in love means risk - the risks of self-disclosure,
rejection, misunderstanding. It means grief, too, from the temporary
separations, psychological or physical, to the final separation of death.
Whoever insists on personal security and safety as the nonnegotiable
conditions of life will not be willing to pay love's price or find love's
enrichments. Whoever shuts himself or herself up in the cocoon of
self-protective defenses, keeping others always at a safe distance and
holding on tightly to personal possessions and privacy, will find the price
of love far too high and will remain forever a prisoner of fear.

John Powell