Through the Wall, A Light

I kissed your pic today. Please forgive me.

8/31/20251 min read

Like any other day, I cried again.

But today, I sent her a video — my voice un-steady, my eyes heavy with years of regret.

She did not reply.

Perhaps she saw it.

Perhaps she didn’t.

Either way, I know:

the hurt I gave her cannot be washed away by the saltwater falling from my eyes.

I have learned that pain is not always loud.

Sometimes it is a slow erosion,

like a river carving stone — and

I have been both the river and the stone.

I have worn her down,

and I have worn myself down too.

I watch my parents grow older,

and I feel the shadow of endings.

But somewhere inside,

a small voice whispers that my story is not yet finished.

That maybe the truest apology

is not in leaving this life,

but in living it differently —

in becoming the kind of man

who could be forgiven,

even if forgiveness never comes.

I never thought love like this would find me.

I used to avoid romantic movies,

thinking they exaggerated the truth.

Now I avoid them because they are too true.

Yet somehow, a movie-kind-of-love happened to me.

And though moving on might lead to a better path,

I cannot take that road.

I will wait — not in chains,

but in quiet work upon myself.

She once asked me:

"Do you think I cannot live without you?"

I never answered.

Because either answer would have been wrong.

Now, I see the question differently.

It was never about whether she could live without me —

it was about whether I could live with myself.

So, I will try.

I will try to live in a way

that, if she ever looks back,

she will see not just the man who hurt her,

but the man who learned.

The man who changed.

The man who carried his love

not as a chain,

but as a lantern.

And if my silence ever grows loud enough

to break the wall between us,

I will speak only this:

I am sorry.

I am grateful.

And I am still here.