For years,I kept thinking, “If I can just hold everything together long enough…eventually we’ll get to the good part.” So I kept managing. Fixing. Supporting. Explaining. Reassuring. Waiting. I thought love meant helping the relationship survive hard seasons. But the hard seasons never fully ended.

There were good moments. Tender moments. Moments where it felt like maybe we were finally getting there. And every time, hope pulled me back in. Because I wasn’t holding onto what the relationship was. I was holding onto what I believed it could eventually become.

That realization broke my heart. Because one day I had to admit. I was exhausted from trying to create stability in a relationship that never naturally settled into it. I kept waiting for peace to arrive.

Meanwhile, my own life was sitting dormant while I poured all my energy into keeping the relationship alive. And the hardest truth? There was no finish line. No magical moment where all the emotional labor finally paid off and we peacefully arrived together.

Just me, getting more tired trying to hold everything steady.

Love should not feel like constantly managing instability while calling it hope. And choosing to stop carrying the entire relationship wasn’t giving up.

It was finally telling myself the truth

Join the journey 💛 michele-natale