TIMELESS REFLECTIONS BY ZOEY

For a long time, I held on to something that kept breaking me hoping it might one day fix itself. I told myself that if I stayed loyal, if I waited quietly, if I just kept showing up it would all come back.

But peace does not come from waiting on someone who already walked away.
It comes when you finally choose yourself.

Fully. Without apology.

That is what I did.

When he left nine months ago I was not just heartbroken. I was hollow.
It was not only about losing a relationship.
It was the silence. The shift. The empty room where laughter used to live.

I held my daughter at night as she slept soundly, unaware that I cried behind her back.

I kept moving. I smiled when I needed to.
But the truth? I was barely holding it together.

At first, I stayed hopeful.
I replayed everything. Wondered if he would come back.
Told myself to be patient. To understand. To wait.

But at some point, something changed.

One day I looked at myself and I did not recognize the woman staring back.
She looked tired. Worn out. Like she had been carrying weight that was never hers to hold.

I realized I had been trying to keep something alive that had already ended.

And that is when I began to let go.
Not of him but of the story I kept telling myself.

In the space that opened up, something else showed up.

I met someone.
It was not sudden.
There was no drama.
Just calm. Steady presence. Respect.

He did not try to fix me.

He did not rush me.
He simply showed up. Again and again.

And slowly, I started to feel safe.

I laughed again the kind of laugh that catches you off guard because you forgot it was still in you.

Even my daughter noticed.

She saw us one day just laughing. Nothing big. Just real.
And she smiled. Like she recognized something new. Something warm.

She reaches for him.
She calls his name.
There is no fear. Only ease.

That is when I knew.
I had made the right choice.

I do not hold hate for the one who left.
But I am not waiting anymore.

I am not stuck in what could have been.

Because something better came.
Someone better. Not perfect, but real.

And I am no longer asking to be chosen.

I already have been 
By peace.
By love.
By the version of me I fought hard to become.

And this time, I am not letting go.