How To Love
For those with a parent, child, friend, or partner battling addiction.
Today, I love you
from close by.
Tomorrow, I’ll love you
from far away.
I’ll love you,
with presence.
with patience.
with boundaries.
with compassion.
with rules.
with allowing space to breathe.
Tomorrow, I’ll love you
from a distance.
through relapse.
I’ll love you
in silence.
in noise.
in echoes.
I’ll grow to love you
by compartmentalizing without numbing.
by accepting without tolerating.
by leaving without forgetting.
by listening without absorbing.
by praying without hoping.
by offering without receiving.
by providing without overextending.
by caring without sacrificing.
by showing up without staying.
by feeling without consuming.
I’ll love you
by choosing differently for my future without judging your past.
by creating beauty in reverence to your pain.
by practicing humility in response to your pride.
by living in gratitude, alchemizing the ache inside of your chest.
by birthing new life without passing down the patterns.
by grounding myself between generations and breaking the chains.
Today, I’ll love you
from close by.
Tomorrow, I’ll love you
from far away.
Steady as you go, friend. Take care of you. Stay observant. Stay willing to change, grow, accept. There is no right way to show your love. Express it. Release it. Forgive. Move forward. Create space and room for your own vision of life. Do not settle for familiarity or repetition. Break the cycle. Embody your own way. There are no limitations to what you can create.
-K