“Never cease loving a person, and never give up hope for him, for even the prodigal son who had fallen most low, could still be saved; the bitterest enemy and also he who was your friend could again be your friend; love that has grown cold can kindle”
Soren Kierkegaard

Sometimes the people we love fall away from us.  Their choices, their direction may take them places we choose not to follow.  Love is possibly irrational or unhealthy; who we love and why we love them is a puzzle that is often left unfinished on the table with pieces missing.  Love is the container of hope.  It is a struggle at times to hold out hope for the rehabilitation of one who has harmed or rejected us.  Keeping that person close may not be a good choice or even possible.  What is possible is to hold that love in our hearts.  We can allow the positiveness we exude to travel silently and in stealth to the recipient.

Giving up on love, losing hope, harms the spirit.  Keeping the careful balance of holding out hope for one who is estranged from us without allowing it to cause harm is risky.  Even when we are intimately affected by the pain inflicted by another, losing trust in the potential for change causes that loss in oneself as well.  Perhaps what is best to cling to is not the love of a particular individual, but the belief that anyone can change, anyone can shift a behavior to a positive direction, trusting in the potential for growth in each of us.

It may not even be desirable to rekindle a friendship that has gone sour, but the love does not flee our hearts in direct proportion to the harm.  Some remains to remind us of the good in the person, and the hope remains to give us peace.