My Boundaries Grew Roots

🦋 

At first, my boundaries felt like sharp edges.

Like I was saying no too hard.

Like I was asking for too much.

Like I was ruining something that could’ve been “fine”

if I had just stayed quiet a little longer.

But now I know

they weren’t edges.

They were roots.

Roots that anchored me

so I wouldn’t get swept into someone else’s storm.

Roots that held me in place

when someone tried to twist their absence

into my “unrealistic expectations.”

I am no longer afraid to ask for presence.

I am no longer afraid to be clear.

I am no longer responsible for the way my boundaries

make someone else confront their own lack of them.

This time, I didn’t shrink.

This time, I didn’t rewrite my need.

This time, I said what I meant

and trusted that the ground beneath me

was mine to stand on.

My boundaries grew roots.

And those roots?

They’re blooming into the version of me

I’ve been waiting to meet.