flowersofzephyr

The man who softens for one Woman. He's tough to the world - sharp, driven, no nonsense. But with her, he's soft. He lets her mess up his hair. Let's her tease him with that smile that makes him forget the rest of the world. He tells her secrets he never says out loud. He lets her in where no one else gets access because her love doesn't make him feel weak. It makes him feel safe. And in her arms, he remembers who he is without the armour.

I hate it when someone can see through me. When they tilt their head and ask, "Are you okay?" or "Did something bother you?" Even if they're right, I'll deny it. I'll shrug, change the subject, or laugh it off. It's strange - how being understood can feel like being exposed. Like someone has peeled away the layers I've carefully built, and now my emotions stand there, naked and trembling. There's nothing left that's mine. I learned early that when people know too much, they use it against you. Or worse, they leave.

Joy Sullivan

"A man unrequitedly in love will stand outside your home and knock, throw, kick, holler, relentless in pursuit. Foreign to the idea of a space he is unwelcome in. A woman unrequitedly in love will sit. She's far away from your house. She knows it's not for her. She will wait, she has gifts prepared if she is ever invited in. She has herself prepared if she's not."

"The bare minimum should disgust you", It does. It does disgust me-how love-deprived I am to put basic decency on a pedestal. But someone who's starving doesn't know what's edible and what's poison. A starving person will take anything. They'll mistake breadcrumbs for a banquet, a passing glance for affection, and silence for peace. Because when you've never known real love, even cruelty wrapped in attention feels like safety. And it's humiliating, how deep the hunger goes, how easily it fools you into gratitude for scraps.

- Mahmoud Darwish

-Catherynne M. Valente

- Ocean Vuong

- Sally Rooney

"You can give without loving, but you can never love without giving. The great acts of love are done by those who are habitually performing small acts of kindness. We pardon to the extent that we love. Love is knowing that even when you are alone, you will never be lonely again and the great happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved, loved for ourselves and even loved in spite of ourselves."

Franz Kafka, from Letters to Milena

— Danzy Senna

- James Baldwin

There were always in me, two women at least, one woman desperate and bewildered, who felt she was drowning and another who would leap into a scene, as upon a stage, conceal her true emotions because they were weaknesses, helplessness, despair, and present to the world only a smile, an eagerness, curiosity, enthusiasm, interest.