What We Rarely Admit

First published on Carolyn Jones's Words In Bloom

Love asks that we risk
being the one who reaches,
being the one who names it,
being the one who needs.

What we rarely admit is this:

love does not only want our hearts,
it wants our hands.

It wants us to show up
as if the days matter,
as if a life can be built
from the honest repetition
of choosing.

Again.
Again.
Again.

Not forever as a promise,
but forever as a practice.

And yes,
it asks for the terrifying miracle:

to let someone touch
the parts of us
we’ve been calling “unlovable,”
and call them
home.

If I remember correctly, Carolyn’s prompt from a January 2026 post, “The Experiment,” was “What does love ask of us that we rarely admit?” I believe the response was posted on Carolyn’s Words in Bloom late January or early February 2026.