Love, Loyalty, and Letting Go

Love anticipates needs.

It pays attention. It notices. It remembers.

Love does not require you to beg for the kind of care that should come naturally from someone who claims to know you.

And loyalty?

Do not accept disloyalty simply because time has passed.

Time does not erase what happened. Familiarity does not turn betrayal into loyalty.

Loyalty is not proven when it is easy.

It is proven when you are not in the room.

It is proven in the conversations you never hear. In the invitations you never know about. In the moments when choosing you might make someone else uncomfortable.

Never forget how someone was willing to make you feel in order to make someone else feel more comfortable.

That matters.

And when someone hurts you, feel it.

Feel all of it.

Sob.

Cry.

Scream.

Write it down.

Say the ugly thing out loud when you are alone in the car.

Get it out.

Do not allow someone to hurt you and then make your body responsible for storing the consequences of what they did.

Fuck that.

Feel it all.

And then, when you are ready, let it go.

Not because what they did was okay.

Not because they deserve forgiveness.

Not because enough time has passed.

But because they do not deserve permanent residency in your body, your mind, or your soul.

Think about it.

How much of your twenty-four-hour day have they already taken?

How many minutes have you spent replaying conversations?

How many hours have disappeared trying to understand behavior that lacked integrity in the first place?

How much of your life have you handed over to someone who was not careful with it?

No more.

They already took the moment.

They do not get the rest of your life too.