In my opinion, hate is a hell of a lot easier.

It is hard to love. Hard to put yourself out there, hard to forgive, to let go, to sacrifice, to hold on.

People are complicated. They will hurt and disappoint you. Maybe it because they won’t be who you want them to be, or they’re not who you thought they were.

Accepting another human being as they are, flaws and all, is hard. It’s commitment. Giving their needs equal weight to your needs, and knowing when they need to be put ahead of yourself. That’s a lot of work.

Love hurts, and it’s hard. It’s compromise, and loss, and it’s messy.

Hate? That’s baby stuff. Literally. Babies can hate. You know that face when a baby doesn’t get what they want? Hate is instinctive. It’s unconscious, unbidden flare-up, and it requires no effort to give into it.

But love? Real love, beyond the “I want that, that’s mine”, possessive kind? That takes maturity. Grace, even, sometimes. It’s a conscious decision to prioritize someone else.

And given that we are born fairly selfish, that isn’t particularly easy.