There are rare turns when a lifetime of withholding love from yourself can fully loosen — when you can meet yourself, at last, as someone worth loving.

Rose at its warmest, green and copper at the heart, deep and still. It has the touch of petal and warm velvet, the rich scent of rose and warm copper, and a faint taste of salt like a held breath.

A lifetime of withholding your own love can feel like realism. This draws no one to you and binds no one — it holds the warmest turn inward, where you can meet yourself, this once, with all the love you've spent on everyone else.