To Embody Love

Love is not a power play.

It is vulnerability.

It is the way I enter a room
already reconciled with my own worth.

No announcement needed.

The essence of love
is not sentimental.
It is exact, lucid, and alive.

It asks for truth.
It asks for discipline.
It asks a woman
to stop negotiating
with what has already revealed itself.

That part.

To embody love
is to become fluent
in my own spirit.

It is knowing
when to be tender,
when to be still,
and when to let silence
do the work
My mouth is too regal to repeat.

Love is not confusion
with a candle lit beside it.

Love is not inconsistent
wearing good cologne.

Love is not a vague promise
wrapped in pretty language.

Please.

I know the difference
between presence and performance.

I know the difference
between devotion and access.

I know the difference
between a man with words
and a man with capacity.

Love, in its quintessential form,
is growth with grace.

It is a transformation
without spectacle.

It is the sacred maintenance
of my heart,
my body,
my peace,
my becoming.

I protect my pleasure,
my power,
and my pockets.

All three are sacred.

All three require discernment.

All three have taught me
that love without respect
is merely a pretty deficit.

And I do not do deficits.

I can be soft
and still be sovereign.

I can be warm
and still be discerning.

I can be gracious
and still be finished.

That is not pride.

That is wisdom
with her edges polished.

Love has made me more honest.

More poised.

More unwilling
to confuse endurance
with intimacy.

More devoted
to the woman
I am becoming
in private
before the world
ever gets to applaud her.

I do not need love
to prove I am worthy.

I embody love
because I am worthy.

Because my tenderness
is not a weakness.

Because my standards
are not an apology.

Because my peace
is not a community resource.

This is the work:

to remain open
without being careless,

to remain kind
without being available
to nonsense,

to remain radiant
without explaining
the cost of the light.

And yes,
there is humor in it.

Because after everything,
I still laugh.

I still put on the oil.

I still light the candle.

I still walk like God
remembered my name
and signed it in gold.

So when I say
I embody love,

I mean
I have become clear.

I mean
I have become whole.

I mean
I have become too aligned
to entertain what is paltry,
obtuse, or beneath
the life I am building.

Love is my practice.

Love is my evidence.

Love is my transformation.

And yes,
it looks expensive.

Because peace like this
is never cheap–

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