is grief the price of love?

I know people who, having lost the one they love, vow never to go through that grief again. It's too painful. They shut themselves off from the chance to love again because of the inevitability of loss.

That's a choice, and it's theirs to make, but are they losing more than they are gaining by taking that decision?

Wishing things were different doesn't make them so. The impermanence of everything is a fact and it's what shows us the passage of time amongst other things. The heat of summer gives way to the cold of winter, plants die back to nurture next seasons new seedlings. We, too, are all part of a long chain of generations, each one giving a chance for the next to thrive. 

We can choose to deny ourselves love and the inevitable grief which follows its loss, or we can dive into it and wallow in all the good things it brings knowing that eventually we will be adrift in sadness when it ends. But surely, the reason we are so sad is that we know how much we've both given and gained while we've loved? Should we deny ourselves the joy to save ourselves the pain?

Is grief the price of love? I think so, but, for me, it's a price so worth paying.