i've been thinking about the specific quality of people who stay. not the ones who stay because leaving feels complicated, or because they don't know how, or because they're waiting for something better to come along. i mean the ones who stay because they want to. because they've looked at all the inconvenient and difficult parts of you and decided that the whole thing is worth it.
those people are rare in a way i didn't fully understand until i'd experienced enough leaving to have a comparison. the stayers don't make a big deal of staying. they just keep showing up. same energy, same availability, same warmth regardless of how much time has passed or how difficult things have been.
if you have even one of those people, you have something most people spend their whole lives looking for. hold them. tell them. don't let the ordinary nature of their consistency make you forget how extraordinary it actually is.
i'll take that. i'll take that into the next one.
@diverse_.writes