Surviving Heartbreak

The Space Between Us

I never understood needing space
from the people you love.
You tried to tell me it was okay,
that distance didn't mean absence,
but I couldn't grasp it.
How could you love someone
and not want to be near them?
How could you hold love in one hand
and let it slip through the other?

I was confused—
confused until you left,
and silence wrapped around me like a second skin.
It was in that quiet,
alone with my thoughts,
that I finally saw what I couldn't before:
wanting space isn't the absence of love—
it's the preservation of it.

You taught me that,
though I didn't know it at the time.
You taught me so many lessons
without ever meaning to.
I used to think love was only closeness,
but now I see it's also the freedom
to step away without fear of losing it.

I'll grant the next one that freedom,
the space to grow without me in every corner,
to breathe, to find himself—
and I'll give myself that same gift too,
a pleasure I once denied
because I didn't know I deserved it.

Maybe this is what maturing feels like,
learning that love doesn't have to cling
to prove its worth.
And maybe that's why I could never hate you,
even when the ache of your leaving
taught me the hardest lesson of all.

—MistakenGenius