Anything Considered

Ron stared off into space, struggling to voice his real question. After a few breaths and false starts, he succeeded. "Do you think that everyone gets to have that?" he said, quietly.

After a few seconds' pause he ventured a glance up at Sirius to find the older man looking at him with an expression of complete understanding. "Son, you speak of it as if it's something that's given to you, a pretty present that comes to your door wrapped in hearts and flowers, and you open it up and get to live happily ever after." He smiled and shook his head. "What you want, what they have, isn't something you find. It's something you build." He paused and looked off into the middle distance. "Love is a large house with many rooms. We come into the world wanting nothing but to live in it, but with only half of what we need to build it for ourselves. So we tuck our supplies away inside our hearts and go out into the world to find that person who has what we lack. If we're lucky, we will find the one person in all the world who has the right nails for our lumber, and stones for our mortar, and shingles for our roofbeams...and only then can we begin to build. The house grows large, and if we have built with care, it becomes our home." He sighed. Ron listened with rapt attention, fascinated and touched. Sirius seemed to have lost himself in his thoughts. "We pour our whole selves into its construction, and it rises to become a glorious edifice. It is built of days and moments, of thoughts and words and feelings. It is painted with laughter and weathered with tears. Some rooms grow dark and are shut away while others are opened. We must tend it carefully and repair its weaknesses if we want it to keep us safe." He met Ron's eyes. "But do you know the real secret?"

Ron swallowed. "What?" he whispered.

"The house is never finished, Ron. We labor on it all our lives, and can only hope that it remains strong and whole enough to shelter us."

From Lori Summers, "Hero With A Thousand Faces"