For a long time
I thought the distance could be crossed
with enough understanding
enough patience
enough imagination
I kept building invisible bridges
believing that somewhere beneath our differences
we must be standing on the same ground
looking toward the same horizon
breathing the same weather
But slowly
something else became visible
Not all at once
Not through a single revelation
Through small things
Accumulated things
Silences
Reactions
The way one person notices
and another does not
The way one person keeps searching
while another simply continues walking
At first
the discovery felt sad
The distance was larger than I had imagined
The worlds were more separate
than I wanted them to be
But after a while
something unexpected happened
The distance stopped feeling like a wound
It became a landscape
It had not suddenly appeared
It had always been there
I was only beginning to see it
Each person carries a different sky
A different rhythm
A different way of making sense of the world
No amount of love can completely erase that
No amount of closeness can fully dissolve it
And perhaps it was never meant to
So now
I no longer feel responsible
for building bridges everywhere
The other person can remain where they are
I can remain where I am
Sometimes our paths cross
Sometimes we exchange a few words
Sometimes there is only silence
And then life continues
Not as a tragedy
Not as a failure
Simply as life
Strangely
the moment I stopped trying to erase the distance
peace arrived
Not because the distance disappeared
But because I finally allowed it to stay
And from there
the world became quieter
The sky became wider
And I could continue walking
without needing everyone
to walk beside me in the same way
⠀
