Where Love Heals

I spend so much time wandering through my memories because that’s the only place you still exist in my life.

It’s strange how a person can disappear from your days but remain everywhere inside your mind.

I visit the sound of your laugh the way other people revisit favorite songs. I replay conversations until I know every pause by heart. I remember the way your eyes softened when you looked at me, the way your hand found me without thinking, the ordinary moments that never felt ordinary until they became all I had left.

People say to let go, as though memories have doors you can simply close behind you.

But memories don’t ask permission.

They arrive with the smell of coffee. A familiar street. A song playing somewhere I wasn’t expecting.

Suddenly I’m back there, standing inside a version of my life where you still answer my calls, where your name still belongs in my future instead of my past.

Maybe that’s why I linger there so often.

Because in my memories, I don’t have to miss you.

You’re still laughing. Still reaching for me. Still choosing to stay.

It’s only when I return to the present that I remember the truth.

My mind is the only place life hasn’t taken you away from me.

Jacque Michele