Love, Maintained

Begin by misunderstanding each other slightly.

Perfection leaves no room to return.

Leave a gap small enough to cross

but wide enough to matter.

Practice noticing without fixing.

The sigh that means nothing.

The silence that means everything.

Resist the urge to turn love

into a problem set.

Speak your needs before they harden.

Say I miss you while it is still soft,

before it sharpens into you never say it anymore.

Treat the ordinary as sacred.

Learn the ritual of their coffee.

The way they lose their keys.

Love stays by pretending it is small.

Allow yourself to be changed.

Not all at once.

Not without argument.

But enough that your old edges

no longer cut the same way.

Return, especially when leaving

would make a cleaner story.

Choose the mess that includes two names.

Forgive in advance.

Not because harm is inevitable,

but because you are both human

and time is patient but not endless.

Protect your shared language.

The jokes no one else gets.

The looks that translate whole rooms.

This is the grammar of staying.

When love feels distant, do not chase it.

Sit down where you last felt it

and wait.

Love remembers places.

Repeat daily, imperfectly.

Love is not sustained by intensity

but by attendance.