I Have Friends Who Can Handle My Silence

Dear Delyara, I’m deeply grateful for the kind of friendships that don’t collapse just because I get quiet for a while. The kind that doesn’t demand instant emotional availability. That doesn’t punish slowness. That doesn’t interpret every period of retreat as rejection. There is something profoundly healing about being loved by people who don’t need you to be socially bright all the time in order to keep caring about you. That kind of friendship feels less like performance and more like safety.