Doug Horton, Protestant clergyman and academic leader of the early 1900s, understood how selfless real love truly is. It was Horton who said, "If you love something let it go free. If it doesn't come back, you never had it. If it comes back, love it forever."

For most, grasping and living by this concept is a hard pill to swallow, and because most of us are innately selfish, it's a love cliche that is seldom put into practice.The quote precisely describes how approaching love with logic instead of emotion will yield better results. Emotion alone will have a man who is emotionally unavailable keep a woman around for companionship but choose to make her life miserable because he is not content. It's the power of emotion that will make a woman with baggage try to keep a man when she isn't yet ready to reciprocate the right kind of love.

In both those situations, and many like them, it is better let the love go, despite how emotionally deep you may feel about the other person. In the end, love really isn't what keeps people together; it's about understanding and respecting the fact that real love isn't about what you want -- it's about giving the other person what they need.

Setting a love free in times of consistent turbulence and peril is the best option, but that shouldn't always be the first option. Love shouldn't be let go at the drop of the dime. Effort should be put in to find a resolution before letting things dissolve. However, if problems remain, I agree with Horton and Keyshia Cole circa 2007-- let it go!

It would also be time to note that Horton failed to mention that when you let something you love go, you should let it go without expecting for it to come back. That means when you break up, there should be no, "Yea, we might get/or hope to get back together." Let it go and leave it alone. Forced love isn't real love, and if you want love to come back, you can only have faith and let time run its course.

If something is meant to be, it will be, and if a person doesn't come back after all the B.S. has cleared, freedom was the best option, and its no one's loss. Not coming back is a clear indication that they did not want to be there, and with you is not where they wanted to be. However if they do return, rejoice in the opportunity for a second chance, but make sure the right changes are mad to cherish and love the right way the second time around.