❤️ Before I Loved You

Before I loved you,

I was a whisper in the crowd,

A shadow moving in daylight,

A name without a story.

I lived, yes—

But more like a leaf in late autumn,

Blown about by the wind’s will,

Never sure where I belonged,

Never sure I even wanted to belong.

My days were quiet in a heavy kind of way.

The sun would rise,

But I wouldn’t feel the warmth.

The moon would glow,

But I never looked up.

I passed places, not moments.

I met people, not souls.

I spoke words,

But never from the heart.

Before I loved you,

Rain was just water,

Nights were just absence of light,

And time—

Time was just something I had to endure.

---

I didn’t know I was waiting for anything.

I had made peace with empty.

I had befriended numbness,

Thinking it was protection.

I mistook solitude for strength,

And silence for survival.

I told myself stories:

“I don’t need anyone.”

“I’m better on my own.”

“It’s safer this way.”

And maybe it was.

Until you walked in—

Not loud, not sudden,

Just… real.

And everything I believed in began to unravel.

---

You didn’t arrive like lightning—

You arrived like spring.

Soft at first, almost unnoticeable,

But then everything started blooming.

Without effort,

Without force.

Only truth.

I noticed the color in things again.

I began to hear music

That seemed written for the ache I never admitted.

I started laughing

Without analyzing why.

And crying—

Because finally, something mattered enough to feel.

---

With you, I learned that love isn’t a rescue.

It’s a remembering.

Of who I was before I broke.

Of who I could be

If someone simply stayed.

And you did.

You stayed.

Through my walls,

My awkward silences,

My fears disguised as sarcasm,

My overthinking that turned into distance.

You saw me—

Not just the curated version I gave to the world,

But the storm beneath,

And still… you didn’t run.

---

Before I loved you,

I didn’t understand how a name

Could become a prayer.

How a glance could rewrite a whole day.

How a single voice

Could sound like home.

I didn’t know

That hands could hold healing,

That eyes could speak forgiveness,

That silence between two people

Could feel like music.

I didn’t know

That love could be so still.

So quiet.

So patient.

---

I thought love had to hurt.

That it had to be dramatic—

Fireworks, chaos, running through airports,

Tears in the rain.

But you showed me

That real love doesn’t scream.

It listens.

It doesn’t chase.

It walks beside.

You taught me

That love isn’t the spark—

It’s the warmth that stays

Long after the flame.

---

Now,

When the sky turns pink at dusk,

I think of your smile.

When the world grows loud and heavy,

I remember the way your presence silences my storms.

You are the pause in my panic,

The steadiness in my shaking,

The anchor in my drift.

And if love is a language,

Then you are every word I never knew I was allowed to speak.

---

Before I loved you,

I was afraid of being known.

I feared that if someone saw all of me,

They’d leave.

But you saw me—

Not despite my flaws,

But with them.

And still chose to love.

You never asked me to shrink,

Or soften,

Or explain the scars I kept hidden.

You simply held them like pages in a book

You wanted to read all the way through.

---

Loving you wasn’t lightning.

It was sunrise—

Slow, certain, and impossible to ignore.

It didn’t change me—

It revealed me.

And now,

I can’t look at a star without thinking of you.

I can’t hear love songs

Without tracing the melody back to your voice.

Even the little things—

The way you take your tea,

The way you laugh before finishing a joke,

The way you say my name like it matters—

They live in me now.

---

Before I loved you,

I existed.

After I loved you,

I bloomed.

And if tomorrow

The world were to fall silent,

And all the stars turned cold—

Even then, I would carry your name

Like fire in my chest,

A light that even darkness

Cannot put out.

---

Because loving you

Was not the end of my story—

It was the beginning

Of everything worth writing.

🖋️ "Some people teach us what love is.

Some remind us what we are when we love.

You did bott