Capacity

Capacity

Someone once told me that I deserved to be loved to the fullest capacity that an individual is capable of. That got me thinking. I had never considered the notion of capacity and love in the same thought, now I can't stop thinking about one without the other. They have become inextricably linked, and possible always were.

When I decided to look into this notion of capacity, I knew that I had to start with the meaning and the very intention of the word. After pulling up the definition from the dictionary I was quite intrigued. Although the word capacity has several definitions, three stood out to me. The first definition listed was "the ability or power to contain, absorb or hold". Skipping down to the third definition, it states "the power of receiving impressions, knowledge, mental ability. The fourth definition was listed as "actual or potential ability to perform, yield or withstand". Multiple words to help understand one meaning... capacity.

So from these three definitions, I pulled two important concepts; the power to contain, and the actual ability to withstand. With these in mind I can only draw one conclusion; the deciding factor in a relationships survival is dependent upon ones capacity to love and the others capacity to withstand.

From here several questions come to mind. What happens when our threshold for either of these capacities is met? Do we have the potential ability to change our capacity for love? Can we even raise our threshold for withstanding? More importantly, do we hold the key to our own ability to change?

With these questions in mind, all I can do is wonder... when the capacity for love is maxed out and the threshold for withstanding the pain is met, where do we go from here?