Love still feels like you

 Love still feels like you.

I didn't expect that.

I thought time would slowly replace the ache with ordinary days.

Instead...

It simply taught me that love doesn't disappear when someone does.

It changes the way it visits.

Now it arrives quietly.

In the warmth of the morning sun spilling across the floor where you used to nap.

In the habit of reaching for one extra treat at the store before remembering...

You don't need it anymore.

In the way I still glance toward the front door whenever I come home, almost waiting to see your happy face and your whole body wagging before I even set my keys down.

Some people think healing means forgetting.

But I've learned healing is remembering without running away.

It's letting the tears come when they need to.

It's smiling at the picture on my phone instead of closing it too quickly.

It's speaking your name out loud, even if no one answers.

Because somehow...

The silence feels kinder when it knows your name.

There are evenings when I sit in your favorite spot on the couch.

I close my eyes, and for just a heartbeat, I can almost feel the weight of your head resting against my leg.

I remember the softness of your fur.

The warmth of your sleepy breath.

The way your eyes could calm every storm inside me without saying a single word.

You had a way of making the whole world feel smaller.

Safer.

Like nothing bad could reach me as long as you were nearby.

That feeling never really left.

It simply found a new place to live.

Inside my heart.

I believe that's why love still feels like you.

Because every kind thing I do now carries a little piece of what you taught me.

Every lonely dog I stop to pet.

Every extra moment of patience.

Every gentle goodbye.

Every quiet act of compassion.

You are still here...

Not in the way I wish.

But in the way love continues after loss.

Sometimes, just before the stars appear, the sky fills with colors too beautiful to explain.

Soft gold.

Gentle blue.

A whisper of rainbow stretching across the clouds.

I always stop and look.

Not because I think you're trapped up there.

But because I believe you're free.

Running through endless meadows with strong legs and a joyful heart, chasing butterflies that never fly too far, splashing through crystal-clear streams, surrounded by dogs who have also known the extraordinary gift of being deeply loved.

And maybe...

When that breeze brushes against my face for no reason at all...

It's you.

Passing by for just a moment.

A quiet reminder that love never needed a heartbeat to stay alive.

One day, I won't have to imagine the sound of your paws racing toward me.

I'll hear them.

I'll laugh through happy tears as you leap into my arms, just as if no time had passed.

Until then...

I'll keep living with the beautiful truth you've left behind.

Love still feels like you.

And somehow...

I think it always will.