“you can still love someone without being an active part of their life.”
Love doesn’t end, it just finds a new place in your heart.
Maybe I’m like a slow-burning flame, a bomb that takes time to explode. It takes me a while to fully understand my mistakes. After a breakup, I don’t always feel sad right away. I tend to distract myself, filling the empty space with other things. I guess, deep down, I’ve always been scared of falling too deeply in love or maybe even being alone.
Looking back, my 20s taught me a lot about love and myself. I wasn’t always the best partner, and I feel disappointed sometimes knowing I could have ended things in a kinder way. It’s a strange sadness when someone you once loved so deeply becomes a stranger. And the idea of reaching out, just to say, “How have you been?” feels so hard.
But today, I came across a post from cher that made me stop and reflect. She said, “You can still love someone without being an active part of their life.” And she’s right. That really resonated with me.
You don’t need to be in someone’s life to continue loving them or caring about their well-being. Even if things didn’t end the way you wanted, those people can still hold a special place in your heart. Maybe they hurt you, or maybe you hurt them, but that doesn’t mean the love has to vanish. It just shifts, softens.
Sometimes, people enter your life for a reason. They may teach you something important or help you grow in ways you couldn’t have on your own. And when their chapter in your story comes to a close, they move on, not because you’ve stopped caring, but because both of you have outgrown the space you once shared.
Breaking up doesn’t mean the love you shared disappears. In fact, letting someone go can be one of the purest forms of love. It’s recognizing that staying together might cause more pain than letting go. Sometimes, you care so much that you want the other person to find happiness — even if it’s not with you. True love isn’t always about holding on tightly; it’s about wishing the best for them, even if their future is no longer tied to yours.
There are still things I wish I could say, words that never found their way out when they should have. But now, I realize those words don’t carry the same weight anymore. Instead, I’ve learned to write goodbye letters, not to send them, but to release those lingering emotions. It brings me a sense of peace.
To that someone, I genuinely wish you the best in life. If our paths ever cross again, I hope we can smile at each other. And for me, that will be more than enough.
