I’ve been thinking about the ways I’ve shown up in our relationship, and I realize I’ve done something quietly wounding. In my haste to protect my own ways of being, I didn’t make enough room for yours. I see now that this left you feeling diminished, as though there wasn’t space for the full, complicated, beautiful person you are.
That wasn’t because you asked for too much, but because I understood too little.
What I should have recognized is that relationships aren’t competitions of needs but acts of mutual enlargement—places where two people help each other become more themselves, not less. I failed at that. I let my fears and habits take up more space than they deserved, and in doing so, I made you feel small.
I’m sorry. Truly. Not in the casual sense, but in the way that comes from seeing something clearly for the first time. I want to learn how to make room—proper room—for who you are, not who I assumed you should be.
If you’re willing, I’d like to understand you better, and to rebuild something that honors both of us.