"The beginning of love is the will to let those we love be perfectly themselves, the resolution not to twist them to fit our own image" Thomas Merton

True love accepts the other as they are with their strengths and weaknesses. True love is based on mutual freedom. When we try to change the other into what we want them to be, we don't really love the other, but ourselves. When we love the other as they are, we free them to choose to change out of love. Such love is risky and may endure pain in the process. However, in the end true love bears much fruit in the mutual relationship of each person.