To know what a person has done, and to know who a person is, are very different things.

One morning when I wake up I want to look over and find your sweet disposition and delicate lashes resting on the warmer side of the pillow, sleeping peacefully next to me. One night when I lay down in bed I want to look over and watch you get in next to me and pull me towards you so my restless mind can finally sleep serenely listening to your heartbeat.

Nobody will protect you from your suffering. You can’t cry it away or eat it away or starve it away or walk it away or punch it away or even therapy it away. It’s just there, and you have to survive it. You have to endure it. You have to live through it and love it and move on and be better for it and run as far as you can in the direction of your best and happiest dreams across the bridge that was built by your own desire to heal.

I’m still learning to love the parts of me that no one claps for.