When Love Isn't Enough

I have loved people I could not stay with. That is one of the harder truths I have had to sit with in my life. We are sold this idea that if you love someone enough, everything else will work itself out. In my experience, that is simply not true.

Love is the beginning. It is not the whole story. You also need respect, kindness, the ability to be in the same room without bracing yourself. You need someone who shows up. Love without those things is just longing dressed up in nicer clothes.

If you are in that place right now, reading this and quietly nodding, I want you to know something. Recognising it does not make you a failure. It makes you honest. And honest is where everything good begins.

You can love someone deeply and still know they are not your person. Both can be true at the same time. That has been one of the most freeing things I have ever learned.