You didn’t plan on loving like this.
It wasn’t something you chased down or tried to create, it just happened. Slowly at first. Then all at once. Now it fills your mind, your days, your soul.
You think about them constantly. Not in a way that distracts, but in a way that centers you.
Their voice calms you. Their presence steadies you. And sometimes, just remembering their smile is enough to make everything else fade away.
You don’t love with conditions. You don’t need reciprocation in equal measure. You simply love… because that’s who you are.
Every part of you wants to give them the world, not out of obligation or desperation, but because giving to them feels like breathing. Like living.
But there are moments, quiet ones, when you wonder if they feel it as deeply. Not because they don’t love you, but because their love moves differently.
You see it: In their guarded silence. In the way they pull back when something touches a wound.
In how much courage it takes for them to let someone in, even someone like you.
And you understand. Because love doesn’t always roar. Sometimes, it whispers from behind scarred walls, brave just for trying again.
So you don’t rush it. You don’t measure it. You just choose, every day, to love them anyway.
Because that’s the truest kind of love: The kind that honors their pace, holds space for their healing, and keeps showing up… even when it’s hard.
Reflection
Maybe you’ve loved someone like this. Or maybe you’re loving someone like this right now, someone who doesn’t always say much, but whose quiet steps toward you carry the weight of a thousand untold stories.
If so, remember: Loving deeply isn’t about being met exactly where you stand. It’s about standing where they are, too—and walking forward together.
“Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.”
— 1 Corinthians 13:7-8
Troy P Zehnder 