Best things in life are free?

So, due to some circumstances in my personal life I won't go into, I have been thinking a lot lately about the sacrifices we all make for the future, and the cost of having a truly beautiful thing. Now of course I am not talking about the physical realm, or material possessions. Rather I am talking about emotional gifts and treasures, things without substance.

We hear so often that "the best things in life are free" or other such sentiments. Now I would agree when one puts that in the context of free=no monetary reimbursement. But is it true on a deeper level. Things like love, friendship, fulfillment, happiness even...are these things really free? And should they be?

Part of the reason my heathen/pagan faith appealed to me in the first place was the absence of this ideal set. I simply can't find any relevance in the mainstream Christian ideas of worth and sacrifice. I cannot see the reality in a faith that tells me that simply believe in this one thing, i.e. christ as savior, that suddenly my life is worthwhile and all these precious gifts are simply to be poured out upon me. It makes no sense and has little relevance in my life. Now I realize this is a vastly simplified view of the Christian faith, but I mean this as a reflection of the values I see reflected in mainstream society.

I don't believe that "the best things in life are free." Everything has a price, even if it is not purchased in coins or gold. Even if the cost is immaterial. I see that the best and most beautiful things I "possess" in my life were earned in my own blood, sweat, and tears. I see that I had to face death itself before I was rewarded with my beautiful daughter. I see that I had to spend years of my life unfulfilled in love, used and abused, before I was finally rewarded with a relationship that fulfills me on the deepest emotional level. I realize that I had to face down irrational fears to break free of mental illness which had haunted the women of my family for generations in various forms. All of these things I have overcome are gifts, they are the best things I have ever achieved, and NOT ONE of these were FREE by any means.

This is why I am heathen. Because even my gods reflect these same things. Sacrifice is an integral part of our interaction with the world and all those within it. "a gift for a gift" truly reflects the reality of what I see in every facet of the world around me.

When I am separated from those I love dearest, I take comfort in Freyja's pain at the abscence of Odr. I can speak to her as one woman to another, and feel closer to her for it, as well as comforted that I am not alone. When I face frustration, I can think of Freyr and those lonely nine nights he faced in wait for Gerdr. When I am homesick, I feel connected to Njord and his longing for his home beside the sea. My gods are't far off, untouchable, or pure. They live and breath as I do, and feel the same emotions on a basic level. In short, I can RELATE to them.

I think this is part of the wisdom of the Vanir, as well as all the Norse gods. We will get nowhere in life if we sit back and live passively, waiting for a gift to fall from the sky into our laps. We must ACT, we must see that a gift is an achievement rather than a given. We must realize that nothing is a given.

What is the price of a beautiful thing?

Is it weighed and measured by strife?

Is it earned by degrees of suffering?

Is it truly a gift without a price?