Understanding

 Sometimes, no matter how deeply we open our hearts or how carefully we choose our words, people still won’t understand us, and that hurts. We want to be seen, to be heard, to be known in the places we feel most vulnerable. But not everyone is ready to listen. Not everyone is willing to step outside their own perspective to meet us in ours. And trying to force that connection only leaves us feeling more unseen than before. There’s a quiet kind of grief in realizing that some people just won’t understand, no matter how much we explain.

But there’s also a quiet kind of strength in letting go. In accepting that understanding can’t be demanded, it has to be offered freely. We don’t need to shrink ourselves or over-explain to earn someone’s empathy. The ones who are meant to walk with us will seek to understand without being asked. And until then, we learn to hold space for ourselves—to know that our feelings, our stories, and our truths are valid, even if no one else fully gets them.