The Strange Thing About Love

Love is strange.

Beautiful, yes.

But strange.

Think about it.

You meet someone you have never known before. A complete stranger. Someone whose name once meant nothing to you. Someone who had an entire life before you existed in theirs.

And somehow, you begin to know them.

You learn the sound of their laughter.
The things that make them nervous.
The stories they rarely tell anyone.
The dreams they are afraid to say out loud.

You learn how they like to be loved.

And somewhere along the way, this stranger becomes familiar.

Then familiar becomes important.

Important becomes necessary.

And somehow, you find yourself building a life around the existence of another human being.

Isn't that strange?

Sometimes you don't even see it coming.

Sometimes there is no grand entrance. No warning. No announcement that this is the person who is about to become such a significant part of your life.

You just meet them.

And then one day, you look at them and wonder how someone who didn't exist in your world before could now occupy so much of it.

That's the beautiful thing about love.

But perhaps the strangest thing about love is what happens when it ends.

Because there was a time when this person was a stranger.

Then they became your person.

And somehow, they can become a stranger again.

The same person you once told everything to.

The same person you could be completely vulnerable with.

The same person you once thought you could not live without.

Suddenly, you don't know what to say to them anymore.

The things you planned together become memories.

The places you wanted to visit together become places you may never go.

The future you imagined begins to belong to a version of yourself that no longer exists.

And perhaps that is one of the scariest things about loving someone.

Not just losing them.

But having to learn how to exist in a world where they no longer exist in the way they once did.

Because how strange is it to remember that there was a time when you would have done anything for this person?

There was a time when you would have crossed oceans for them.

A time when you trusted them with the softest parts of yourself.

A time when their happiness felt almost as important as your own.

And then life happens.

People change.

Love changes.

Sometimes people stay.

Sometimes they leave.

Sometimes two people who once couldn't imagine life apart eventually have to learn how to live it separately.

And yet...

There is another side to this strange thing called love.

The beautiful side.

The possibility that the stranger you meet becomes the person who stays.

The possibility that you meet someone, fall in love, and instead of becoming a memory, they become your home.

You build a life together.

You take road trips and get lost together.

You argue over stupid things and laugh about them years later.

You celebrate birthdays.

You watch each other grow.

You build a family.

You collect memories.

You grow older.

And one day, you look at the same person who once stood before you as a complete stranger, and now there are wrinkles around both of your eyes.

And somehow, you are still choosing each other.

Still laughing.

Still holding hands.

Still saying, “Remember when...”

Maybe that is the most beautiful part of love.

Not that you found someone.

But that you found someone who stayed.

Someone who grew with you.

Someone who saw every version of you and still wanted to know the next one.

Someone who watched you change and allowed you to watch them change too.

Because love is strange.

It is terrifying.

It is beautiful.

It is vulnerable.

It is the decision to let another human being become important enough that their absence would hurt.

And maybe that's the risk we take.

We meet strangers.

We let them into our hearts.

We build worlds with them.

We make memories.

We dream.

We love.

And sometimes, we lose.

But sometimes...

Two strangers meet.

And they spend the rest of their lives making sure they never have to become strangers again.

Maybe that's what makes love worth the risk.

Thank you for sitting with my thoughts today :)
Until next time, stay gentle with yourself and with others.❤️