There was a time when I believed love could keep people close forever.
I believed that if I loved hard enough, cared deeply enough, or held on tightly enough, no one would leave.

But life taught me a different truth. People change. Paths separate. Time moves forward whether we are ready or not. For years, I stared at the distance between us. I mourned what was lost. I mourned what could have been. I mourned the future I thought we would share. But grief is not the absence of love. Grief is love with nowhere left to go.

Today I carry the memories instead of the expectations.