People that make you want to be better

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I was talking to Mabel about people that come into your life, make a mark on you, and change you forever.

She described those people as "people that give you a higher standard to aim for" - basically, people that inspire you to be better, because they are.

I think love, in its purest form, between two people, has that effect. It makes each other want to be better. Just being around the other person is like a breath of fresh air, and just the smallest things make you smile inside and feel like you can accomplish anything you set your mind to.

It's when two people in love try to own each other, hold on to each other, and make each other the goal - instead of letting their love make them come alive and give them the courage to live a bigger and better life - that things suddenly becoming suffocating, stifling, uninspiring, and dead.

Maybe love is not a destination but a signpost along the journey of life. Maybe there's no way to really make love last unless it keeps moving forward, growing, changing, as the people who share it move forward, grow, and change.

"Appreciative love gazes and holds its breath and is silent, rejoices that such a wonder should exist even if not for him, will not be wholly dejected by losing her, would rather have it so than never to have seen her at all." — C.S. Lewis (The Four Loves)