Sit With Me Awhile

There are a lot of things people talk about when a long relationship ends.

Heartbreak.
Healing.
Learning how to rebuild your life.

But no one really talks about the bed.

For years I slept on one side of the bed.

That was just the arrangement.

Everyone who has shared a bed long enough knows how this works. You naturally claim a side, and that side becomes permanent.

Mine was the left.

So when I found myself sleeping alone for the first time in a long time, I did what I always did.

I slept on the left side.

Night after night.

Completely ignoring the massive amount of unused mattress sitting next to me.

And then one night it hit me.

I could sleep wherever I wanted.

I remember laying there thinking about it for a minute.

Should I try the other side?

Was that allowed?

Was there some kind of unspoken rule about these things?

So the next night I did something wild.

I slept on the right side of the bed.

It felt slightly rebellious.

Like I had broken some invisible rule that had existed for years.

And then a few nights later I discovered something even better.

The middle.

The middle of the bed is where the real magic happens.

There’s no edge.

No negotiating blanket space.

No accidental elbow battles in the middle of the night.

Just pure, uninterrupted mattress freedom.

And now, sometimes when I stretch out across the bed like a human starfish, I catch myself laughing.

Because healing doesn’t always show up in big emotional moments.

Sometimes it shows up in the quiet realization that you finally have the whole bed to yourself.

And honestly?

The middle is where I plan on staying.