I Think Ive Realized That True Understanding Settles Into You. Like When You Truly Understand, And Not

For now, it's the sort of winter that freezes the tip of your nose but does nothing to your bones.

For now, I am content.

Just because an animal has scales doesn't mean you get to trample on it.

You're not selfish for protecting your own heart.

You're not cold for honoring your limits.

You're not unloving for needing space to breathe.

You’re healing.

And every time you choose yourself, even through guilt, you teach your brain a new language:

Love doesn’t mean abandoning myself.

Love can include me.

And my love includes me.

hey love,

if you’re reading this, maybe your chest feels heavy again. maybe the old voices are getting louder.

so take a breath. come back to this:

you are not responsible for everyone’s healing.

you are not a failure when someone else is hurting.

you are not the reason your world cracked, you were just a child trying to hold it together with your bare hands.

it is safe now to let go.

you don’t have to earn your worth by saving others.

you don’t have to prove anything to deserve peace.

you are already doing the brave work by pausing, by feeling, by speaking kindly to yourself.

and i promise you, even if you forget these truths tomorrow, they will find their way back to you.

because they live inside you now.

you are not the pain you absorbed.

you are the love that stayed.

i’m proud of you.

i’m with you.

always.

— love, me

Time is unraveling and it's terrifying.

Thoughtful and gentle and sweet. Wild and reckless and loud. Emotions and words and actions.

something so sacred about a heart returning to its origin.

Calm dear heart, calm.

You've weathered storms before.

You'll weather this one too.

Calm dear heart, calm.

btw, it's called the soldierhood of love.