When Love Passes Through the Body... And Something Doesn't Survive

Your body made the decision months ago. Your mind is just catching up.

You know that thing where you’re lying next to someone, maybe someone you’ve slept beside for years, maybe someone new, maybe just the ghost of someone who left three months ago but whose dent in the mattress your body still remembers… and you suddenly feel your ribcage tighten like it’s trying to protect something that’s already gone?

And your brain is doing that thing where it narrates your life like a bad self-help podcast: “We’re fine. This is love. This is what commitment looks like. We’re doing the work. We bought matching mugs.”

Meanwhile, your body is running a completely different broadcast. Breaking news from your solar plexus: something here is dying and your matching mugs can’t save it.

Your cells don’t lie, love. Your nervous system doesn’t gaslight you. Only your narrative does.

Here’s what nobody tells you about love: It doesn’t live in your heart. (I know, I know, Valentine’s Day would like a word. Hallmark is drafting a cease and desist. Every rom-com ever is clutching i…