By: Dr. Adnan Bouzan
Do not wager your heart on those who are accustomed to absence, and do not make your soul a harbor for ships that have no intention of docking. Some people pass through our lives like the wind over water—stirring it for a moment, then leaving it clearer, if it knows how to regain its stillness. So do not linger too long at doors that have been closed in your face; not every closure is a loss—sometimes, it is a rescue from a long wait that bears nothing but disappointment.
Walk lightly, free from the burden of attachment, and seek yourself before you seek others. A heart that spends itself in the wrong place grows old before its time, and a soul that offers its warmth to those who cannot feel it fades without noticing. Do not overanalyze their coldness; some hearts know only indifference, and some souls do not speak the language of staying.
Learn to love without losing yourself, to give without emptying your spirit, and to draw close without chaining your freedom. A relationship that extinguishes you is not a home, attention that comes too late is not love, and an apology not followed by change is merely a repetition of betrayal in a different language.
Do not call out to those who do not hear you, and do not engage with those who do not wish to understand you. Words spoken into emptiness return as wounds in your chest. Choose silence when speech becomes depletion, and choose absence when presence becomes an insult to your dignity. Pride is not cruelty—it is the preservation of a self that does not deserve to be humiliated.
If someone sells the bond you shared, do not buy regret. Let memories pass as seasons do—do not cling to them beyond what is fitting, nor burden them with more than they can carry. What was genuine will remain within you effortlessly, and what was false will fall away, no matter how long it takes.
Make your heart a home for light, not a warehouse for pain. Open your windows to hope, even if only through a narrow crack. Life does not give itself to those who merely wait, but to those who create beginnings from every ending. Do not fear starting over—beginnings are not weakness, but a different kind of courage.
Remember: your face was created to smile, not to carry the sorrow of others, and your eyes were not made to weep over those who do not see you. You are not a substitute for anyone, nor a shadow of someone’s absence—you are a story in your own right, worthy of being told as it is, not as others wished it to be.
Plant within yourself a quiet certainty: that what suits you will come, that those who resemble your soul will find you, and that the roads that close today may lead tomorrow to wider horizons. Do not rush things; some destinies ripen in silence, and some encounters require time to become possible.
Be your own support when others are late, and your own refuge when the roads grow narrow. Do not neglect yourself for anyone, and do not bargain yourself for a fleeting presence. A soul that is preserved blossoms; a neglected one withers, even if surrounded by everything.
Do not look back too often. Move forward as a river does—it never returns to its source, but carves its way toward the sea. Be faithful to your journey, not your disappointments. Hold on to what you have learned, not to what has broken you. For life, at its core, is not what we lose, but what we rebuild within ourselves, again and again, until we become who we choose to be—not who others wanted us to be.