For the longest time, I believed love meant giving until I had nothing left. I poured myself into others, carried burdens that weren’t mine, and absorbed pain that never belonged to me. I thought love required self-sacrifice—that to prove I cared, I had to shrink, to bend, to mold myself around someone else’s needs. But all it did was leave me drained, disconnected from my own essence.

Life, however, has a way of teaching lessons that the heart resists but the soul desperately needs.

“If this is your storm, then you must walk through it yourself. But I can be your anchor—I can hold steady while you find your way.”

I can hold space for you, stand beside you, and offer my strength—but I will not drown in your waves. I have my own path, my own battles, my own peace to protect.

If life shakes your world, I will not abandon you. I will be here—steady, unwavering—but I will not disappear within your chaos. Because love, true love, is not about losing oneself to hold another together. It does not demand that one person fades so the other can shine.

So, I choose love that honors, not erases. Love that nurtures, not depletes. Love that walks beside, not over. Because I have learned that the deepest love is the one that allows us both to remain whole.
Suvi’s Scribbles