Sometimes trying to erase where your heart still lives can be a bitch.
There are nights when the lake gets quiet enough that your own thoughts start sounding louder than the water. You sit there, breathe, meditate, let the night settle around you, and suddenly Michael Bolton is singing straight into an old part of your heart while Steve Perry’s Traces sneaks in with that strange little reminder that some good men still exist.
Not men living double lives.
Not men collecting hearts like trophies.
Not men asking for loyalty while keeping one foot outside the door.
I mean the ones who stand firm.
The ones who understand that love cannot survive forever on only one love language. Sometimes it takes words. Sometimes service. Sometimes touch. Sometimes time. Sometimes the smallest gift says, “I saw you. I remembered.”
And sometimes women have to meet that same level too.
Because sacrifice should never become a one-person profession.
There are men who have quietly rearranged pieces of their lives for the people they love, not because somebody demanded it, but because love made the sacrifice feel worthwhile. That kind of devotion deserves to be recognized, protected, and reciprocated.
Then there is the other side of the shoreline.
There are still plenty of broken people who want everything without having to choose anything. They play games with hearts because commitment requires accountability, and accountability means admitting that someone else’s emotions are not disposable.
Music has a funny way of exposing that truth.
One song can remind you of someone you haven’t seen enough. Another can make twenty years collapse into twenty seconds. Suddenly you realize just how much time has passed, how many conversations were missed, how many evenings could have been shared, and how many moments you assumed would always be waiting for you.
That realization stings.
Eventually you learn that the way you love someone becomes part of the environment in which they grow.
Share your dreams.
Chase them fiercely.
Build something beautiful.
But build it beside someone who understands what it costs to build.
And this is not a heterosexual reflection.
Love has never belonged exclusively to one gender, orientation, body, or configuration.
Every relationship has its own language and its own architecture. The responsibility is learning the person standing beside you rather than forcing them into somebody else’s blueprint.
Respect boundaries.
Respect space.
Respect independence.
But never become so comfortable with someone’s strength that you forget they still have a heart in your hands.
When life gets hard, pay attention to how you handle that heart.
Love fully when love is present.
Give space when space is necessary.
Communicate when silence starts becoming dangerous.
And understand that longevity is rarely created through perfection.
It is created through two people continuing to recognize one another when life gets complicated.
Maybe that is what these late-night songs are really reminding me:
Some traces never completely disappear.
Maybe they aren’t supposed to.
Sometimes they simply teach us where love once lived, where it still lives, and what kind of love we should never settle beneath again. 🌙🌊🎶