![Twitter avatar for @rachelclif](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/rachelclif.jpg)
love is present in the strangest, most obvious & most unexpected of places-- often at the same time.
![Twitter avatar for @rachelclif](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/rachelclif.jpg)
you taught me the meaning of love because you stayed. you stay. you stay even when (or though) it's hard. our relationship is my greatest role model. we don't have to like, be the same as or understand one another to be able to love.
![Twitter avatar for @rachelclif](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/rachelclif.jpg)
I don't speak enough about how inspired I am by you. I don't speak enough about how much you've taught & shaped me. I don't speak enough about how indebted I am to you. I wouldn't be a cycle-breaker without you. I owe you everything.
![Twitter avatar for @rachelclif](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/rachelclif.jpg)
your love for me is the purest of all. you struggle, and you stay. you've questioned it, and you don't back away. miraculously, we have never been too far gone. like everything else: it could’ve been so different.
![Twitter avatar for @rachelclif](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/rachelclif.jpg)
I feel sad that I spent so much time wanting you to be different. I feel sad that I couldn't see you before. I feel sad about how selfish I was. and I don't hate myself for it at all.
![Twitter avatar for @rachelclif](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/rachelclif.jpg)
the things we go through in life make us & shape us. they do not have to break us. we are not broken. we are already saved.
![Twitter avatar for @rachelclif](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/rachelclif.jpg)
the things we go through in life make us & shape us. they do not have to break us. we are not broken. we are already saved.
![Twitter avatar for @rachelclif](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/rachelclif.jpg)
I hope you feel proud of me one day. I trust that you will, in your own way. I want you to know that I see what you sacrificed. I want you to know that I see the love in your pain. and, most of all, I want you to know that it won't go to waste.
![Twitter avatar for @rachelclif](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/rachelclif.jpg)
writing these letters is calming for me. there is a stillness to it, a universality. I can see what I couldn't see before. I can feel what I couldn't feel before. nothing is wrong, and nothing hurts.