this tender storm called life

healing does not mean nothing ever hurts you again. it does not mean you become so detached that disrespect rolls off your skin, or that you stop holding people accountable when their choices cause real harm. healing is not silence, passivity, or pretending everything is fine just to prove you have grown. healing is learning…

i think people love to call staying strength because it makes the suffering look prettier. it gives the bruises a name that sounds less embarrassing. loyalty. patience. devotion. growth. all those soft words people slap over a wound when they do not want to admit something is rotting underneath. but there is nothing holy about…

i have spent so much of my life loving people in the ways i wish someone would have loved me. gently. loudly. fully. without making them beg for softness. without making them prove they were worthy of being held. i have walked into people’s storms with both hands open, willing to be shelter, willing to…

i used to think being strict made me hard to love. i used to think having structure meant i was too much, too intense, too difficult, too complicated to keep. i used to soften things that deserved teeth. i used to explain myself until my chest hurt, hoping people would finally understand that i was…