For a long time, I thought letting someone new in would mean betraying you.
That opening my heart again would erase the love we shared, as if memories could be overwritten. I held on tightly, afraid that if I let go even a little, I would lose the last pieces of you that lived inside me.

But I’ve come to understand something:
Loving again does not mean forgetting.
It does not mean replacing.
It means healing.

This new love doesn’t carry your voice, your smile, your way of looking at the world. It isn’t you — and it will never be. And that is okay. Because it was never meant to be a replacement. It is something different. Something new. Something mine, here and now.

And maybe that is what healing really is:
To allow my heart to hold both the love that once was, and the love that is.
To honor the past without letting it chain me.
To carry you with me, but still walk toward tomorrow with someone else at my side.

I will never stop loving what we had.
But I will also not stop myself from loving again.
Because life is too short to bury my heart with you.

This isn’t betrayal.
It’s survival.
It’s growth.
It’s love finding me again, not to erase you, but to remind me that I am still alive.

Always and Forever

💬 Have you ever felt afraid to love again because it felt like betrayal? Share your truth in the comments — your words may free someone else from the same fear.