When do you stop loving?

I stopped loving you the way I used to.

It didn’t happen suddenly, nor was it for lack of trying.

But there came a moment when I realized… it no longer made sense.

Everything changed.

We changed.

I changed.

The kids we were when we met… so full of dreams, laughter and plans made on the spur of the moment—those are left behind, lost in time.

They disappeared with the bicycles in Haarlem, the walks to Bloemendaal, the little surprises, the unexpected smiles.

All of that stayed in the past, replaced by longer silences, heavy responsibilities, exhausting routines.

We became adults, parents, professionals, people with more baggage than we had arms to carry.

And the rope that once bound us tightly, passionately, with promises, stretched… until it broke.

And when it broke, there was emptiness, sadness.

There remained the weight of a marriage that was no longer a home.

It was no longer love.

Just a broken mirror in which we saw ourselves as distant.

I deeply regret that we couldn’t make it work.

God knows how much I tried.

But there is something in me... perhaps hope, perhaps faith... that tells me life can still show us that the path to our happiness is this: to go our separate ways.

And yet, I will always love you.

Not as before.

But as one loves someone who was part of their soul.

As one loves a friend.

A life companion.

A beautiful and real chapter of my story.

Forever, my friend.