12/22/2024
“What is it about a dog?” she said, right before I interrupted her.
“It’s the kind of love they give you,” I said. “The kind you didn’t even know you needed, but somehow, it showed up at exactly the right time.”
She tilted her head, waiting for me to go on.
“They don’t demand anything. They just… stay. They just love. Pure and unfiltered. Raw and full of warmth. Through all of it. The doubts, the flaws, the times when you feel like you’ve got nothing left to give. Nothing to show for. And somehow, they make it enough. They don’t care if you’re broken, if you’ve got baggage.They don’t care if you overthink everything, if you can’t seem to get it together. They don’t care about the type of things that separate us or cause confusion. They see right through all of it, and they love you anyway. Fully and without consequence.”
I looked down, shaking my head, a small smile creeping in. “It’s not the flashy kind of love people write poems about. It’s steady, honest, the kind that holds you together when everything else is falling apart. And when you look back, you realize it was exactly what you needed, even when you didn’t know how to ask for it.”
She nodded, but I could tell she didn’t quite understand. Not yet. “You’ll get it,” I said. “One day, you’ll get it.”
-R.M Drake