To The Friends Who Heal Our Broken Hearts

Thank you for listening to us talk about it over and over again and wiping off our tears.

Thank you for telling us that we’re special, that we deserve more, that we’re incredible, that we’re loved even if we’re shattered into a million pieces.

Thank you for picking up our pieces when we can’t find them, thank you putting us back together when we’re all over the place.

Thank you for answering our calls on your busy days and for coming over after midnight to hug us a little tighter and help us sleep.

Thank you for reminding us that even though a lot of people will break our hearts, you never will. Thank you for giving the reassurance we keep looking for in everyone else.

Thank you for being our therapists, thank you for guiding us, thank you for healing us and asking for nothing in return.

If you don’t know this by now, you should know that without you, we wouldn’t have made it, we wouldn’t have seen another day, we wouldn’t have seen the light.

Without you, we would’ve stayed broken and maybe even damaged.

Without you, we wouldn’t have rebuilt ourselves.

Thank you for being there. Thank you for being present. Thank you for being the ones who stay in a world where everyone leaves.

Thank you for your silent prayers, for your secret wishes, for wanting the best for us and praying we’d find it. Thank you for loving us loudly and silently. Thank you for trying to fix us even when you’re broken.

Thank you for showing us that some hearts will always love us, that love doesn’t always have to leave us broken and that some hearts will never give up on us.

Thank you for embodying the kind of love we’re looking for and reminding us to keep our standards high and our heads higher.

Thank you for easing our loneliness and reassuring us that we’re not always as alone as we think we are.

Thank you for being our defibrillators. The ones who bring us back to life. The ones who teach us how to love again.  

Rania Naim is a poet and author of the new book All The Words I Should Have Said, available here.