The Embrace Came Before the Bloom

The sun is down now, and the quiet you feel is not just the end of the day. It is the heavy realization that no one is standing at the window, waiting for you to bloom again.

You have spent so long performing spring for an audience that has already left the room. But listen — the light does not need your flowers to know you are alive.

There was a father who saw his son coming home from a long way off. He did not wait for the garden to be restored.

He ran while the son was still covered in the dust of the pig pen. The embrace came before the bloom.

You do not have to earn the right to be held by fixing yourself first. The light is already here, sitting with you in the exhaustion, loving the bare branches just as much as the fruit.

You are not a project that needs to be finished before you are worthy of love. You are the beloved, even in the winter.