Between us

This is a poem I wrote about listening and connection.

There is a moment when I begin to speak,

and I can hear myself thinking as the words come,

moving slowly, finding their place,

as if I am discovering what I feel while I am saying it.

You stay with me in that pace.

Your attention meets me where I am, and something in me settles into that.

I feel it in my body before I understand it.

My breath deepens.

My chest softens.

There is more room inside me than there was a moment ago.

I let what I am saying arrive as it is,

unfinished, a little uncertain, still forming,

and I notice I don’t pull it back.

There is space for it to exist between us.

You listen in a way that keeps the moment open.

I can feel that you are with me,

not only in what I say, but in what is still underneath it,

in what I have not yet found the words for.

That kind of listening changes something.

I begin to trust the space we are in,

because of how it feels to be here with you.

And with that, something else appears quietly.

A sense of responsibility for what I bring into this space.

For how I speak.

For how I hold you while you are speaking.

I start to notice you more deeply.

Not only your words,

but the pauses, the small shifts,

the gestures and expressions of your face,

the moments where something matters.

When something good happens for you,

I feel it fully, without needing to measure it against anything in me.

There is a warmth that moves through my chest,

simple and clear,

a happiness that belongs to you and reaches me too.

And when something touches you more deeply,

I feel that as well.

It slows me down.

It asks something of me.

I stay close to it.

I let it affect me.

There is time there.

Time for silence,

time for what is felt to settle,

time for something real to take shape without being pushed.

Care begins to show itself in these moments.

In the way I choose my words.

In the way I stay present when it would be easier to look away.

In the way I remember that you carry your own inner world,

as real and as complex as mine.

Empathy lives here as something that moves through the body.

It guides how I respond,

how I listen,

how I remain aware of the space between us.

And slowly, something becomes clear in a way that does not need to be said.

This connection asks for honesty.

For attention.

For a willingness to feel and remain present with what is here.

It asks that I care about you,

and about what we are building between us.

It asks that I stay.

And as I do,

moment by moment,

without forcing anything forward,

a quiet trust begins to take root.

Last week I reflected on the other side of this, the place where we feel disconnected from ourselves and from each other.

If you feel drawn to explore that as well, you can find it on my Substack.

https://rosiemoondiary.substack.com/p/we-know-so-much-yet-we-are-so-disconnected

Love,

Rosie x