When the Butterflies leave....
For context, I would highly recommend you read this first: Attraction of Love
The hardest part about heartbreak isn't that someone leaves. It's accepting that they were never meant to stay.
After Ross walked away, Ryan spent months trying to understand what had gone wrong. Like most of us, he searched for answers in old conversations, photographs, and memories, hoping to find the exact moment where love began to fall apart.
But the truth was simpler than he imagined.
Nothing changed overnight.
The excitement did.
And he had mistaken excitement for love.
Time has a strange way of teaching lessons that people never can.
One rainy evening, Ryan found himself sitting alone in a small café. At the table beside him sat an elderly couple. They weren't holding hands. They weren't taking pictures for social media. They weren't trying to prove anything to the world.
They simply sat together.
The old man quietly stirred his wife's tea before placing the cup in front of her. She smiled, not because it was a grand gesture, but because he had remembered she preferred less sugar.
It lasted only a few seconds.
Yet it said more about love than every romantic movie Ryan had ever watched.
That's when he understood something he had never noticed before.
Love isn't found in grand gestures.
It's hidden in ordinary moments.
It's remembering how someone likes their coffee.
It's waiting for them to reach home safely.
It's choosing kindness even when you're angry.
It's listening when you would rather speak.
The world celebrates the beginning of relationships.
The butterflies. The flowers. The surprises.
But very few people celebrate what keeps a relationship alive after all those things disappear. Because one day the flowers stop arriving.
The late-night conversations become discussions about bills, responsibilities, careers, and family.
The butterflies eventually become comfort.
And comfort, strangely enough, is often mistaken for boredom. Many people leave at that point. Not because they stopped loving. But because they stopped feeling the excitement they once called love.
Ryan finally realized that love was never supposed to feel like fireworks every single day.
Fireworks are beautiful. But they only last a few moments.
A lighthouse isn't nearly as exciting. Yet it continues to shine through every storm.
Real love is much more like a lighthouse than fireworks.
It doesn't always make your heart race.
Sometimes... It simply gives your heart a place to rest. Months later, Ryan no longer wished Ross would come back.
Not because he hated her. But because he had finally made peace with the chapter they shared. Some people enter our lives to stay. Others enter simply to teach us what we deserve. Neither role is less important.
As for Ryan... He stopped searching for someone who could make him feel complete. Instead, he focused on becoming someone who could love without losing himself.
Perhaps that's the greatest lesson love ever teaches us.
The right person won't ask you to prove your worth. They'll recognize it without you having to explain.
Because attraction introduces two strangers.
Respect makes them friends.
Trust makes them partners.
And every single day they choose each other...
That is what makes it love.
-Stillwriting...
Beautifully Described Love
ReplyDelete