A Heart That Migrates
That ache that follows when the season comes to an end.
Recently, I sat down at a table that was familiar. The conversations were predictable. The movements were expected. I watched the people around me remain exactly who they had always been. Nothing had changed, yet I noticed I had. Instead of feeling the connection that once made the place come alive, I felt nothing but a wave of bittersweetness wash over me. I wasn’t angry, nor hurt. I was simply witnessing an ending that already happened.
For a long time, I’ve struggled to trust my heart. I didn’t know any better, but to hope that love lasts forever. As I grow up, I’ve learned to accept that love exists with loss. I will contradict myself every time I allow doubt or intoxication to distort how I truly feel. But, the more attuned I become to myself, the more appreciation follows. And with appreciation comes recognition that not every meaningful connection is meant to last.
Some people are companions for a season. Some places hold us until we’ve learned what they came to teach. Some versions of ourselves can only survive for a certain chapter. The love and lesson remain a part of us.
The presence does not.
I have a heart that migrates.
Not because I care too little, but because I care deeply enough to recognize when something has reached its natural conclusion. And staying beyond what is true would mean abandoning myself.
Migration is not rejection, nor avoidance.
It’s trust.
It’s trusting that what was real remains real, even after it ends. Trusting that not everything we love is meant to accompany us for a lifetime. Trusting that life asks us to release certain things that once felt comfortable when the seasons call for us to become who we are destined to be.
I’m not afraid of change.
What moves me is witnessing myself finally choose it.
Not because I know where it will lead, but because for the first time I trust the direction my heart is going.
By Aliya Goodnature, read more at substack.com/@aliyagoodnature/note/p-196322362?r=7g7pnf&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action