Dear Ileana, I've been feeling pretty stoic about us today.  I know that either you love me and I'll hear from you again or you don't and I won't.  I have a lot of faith that it's the first one.  Neither one of us would've stuck through some of those challenging times if we didn't truly love one another.  Neither one of us would've cried so many tears if our whole heart wasn't in it and wanted us to work so badly.  Neither one of us would've exhibited the passion we have for the other, time after time after time, in both positive and negative manifestations.  That passion, that desire, that magnetism is love.  Our problem was that all too often we didn't trust that the other truly loved.  And I think the reason for that is that neither one of us felt like we deserved the love of the other.  Our own individual fears, insecurities, and lack -- or less than enough -- of self-love killed this relationship.  Since we didn't feel like we deserved the other's love, any mistake by the other party only validated and supported that insecurity, and from there it was just a downward vicious cycle of waiting for the other person to mess up to "prove" that we didn't love each other.  It was a self-fulfilling prophecy.  And yet we both love each other so much.  And like all true love, it will never die.  Looking forward from here, then, the question is not whether we will still love each other; we will.  The question is whether the timing will be right -- after we internally forgive ourselves and each other, completely -- for us to one day be together again.  And if that happens, the immediate challenge is demonstrating to each other through consistent actions that we love each other and that we feel secure enough to deserve each other's love.  In other words, our love must be for ourselves and for each other, which goes back to truly having forgiven ourselves and each other for our past mistakes.  I know that seems like a lot needed to happen, but I have faith that if it is true love, then anything is possible.  Love,