Where Love Heals

It hits without warning—

not loud,
not dramatic—

just a quiet ache
that settles in my chest
like it belongs there.

I can be fine one moment,
answering emails,
moving through my day—

and the next,
I’m back there.

At the beginning.
At the almost.
At everything
that never quite became anything at all.

It’s not even you I miss— (actually, it is…I just hate admitting it)
not really.

It’s the way it felt
to believe in something
that might have stayed.

And now I sit here
holding all of it alone—

the memories,
the meaning,
the weight of something
that mattered to me
more than it ever did to you.

And I want to reach for you—
just to make the feeling stop.

But I don’t.

Because I’m learning
that this ache
is not a sign to go back—

it’s a sign
that I’m finally
letting go.

So I sit with it.

One breath.
One moment.
One hour at a time.

And even though it hurts—

I stay.

JMS