cliche

I wanted to write a cliche because sometimes, they’re what we need to hear in order to pick ourselves up and move on.

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It gets easier everyday to forget someone you thought you couldn’t. It gets easier everyday to give up on someone you thought you couldn’t. It gets easier everyday to move on from someone you never thought you’d have to let go. 

The love that we need isn’t quantified by how long we’re with someone or even by how strongly we feel. The love that we need is quantified by the way people treat us. The love that we want is easy to receive. We welcome it with open arms because it is easy to accept. 

The love we need runs deeper than the love we want. We have a hard time acknowledging it because it makes us vulnerable and prone to extreme emotions. It breaks us down to the fibers of our existence and suddenly, our intricate tapestry unwinds and tears apart. 

The walls we had woven to keep strangers out. The frayed fringes of arguments gone sour. The needlepoint words that poke and sting. All impossibly intertwined and we are wrapped up in the carpet burn again. 

So why do we continue to let ourselves fall? Why is it we shatter then mend ourselves only to break again? Why are we afraid to give the love we so desperately need for ourselves?

We use snapshots of the past to lay out our futures. Except this time, we want the film to show that we did everything right. We want to prove that we can fix what was never meant to work out before. 

We don’t have to unravel our memories or throw them away. Just keep them tucked away in the corner of our minds, so that when we see a reminder, a flashback, a trigger, we don’t have to make a mad dash for the shadows. We will be gentle to our own minds and kind to our hearts instead. The bruises heal with time. The scars don’t go away, but the sting slowly will. We’ll wear them proudly then. 

It’s okay to take a step back and forgive yourself first. Not everything was your fault. It would’ve ended either way. They were meant to be lessons, every single one of them. Lessons that teach us to gather ourselves and breathe before jumping back in.  We will smile a small smile and say we already have all the love we need stitched neatly inside. 

One day, we won’t need any more than that. 

I know it sounds like I’m talking at you, but I’m really just saying this out loud for myself. I needed to hear it too.