Please Don’t Mistake My Big Heart For A Weak One

If you ask me whether or not I care, I do. If you need me to stand by your side, I will. If you want me to be a part of your life, to stay, and to be a shoulder to lean on for whatever storm you face, I promise I will. Without hesitation. No matter how much pain or distance has passed between us.

When I love, I hand my significant other my heart in the palm of my hand. I smile and tell him to take care of it, and I don’t guard, protect, or build walls.

When I love, I open. I trust. I forgive. I listen. I let my emotions do the talking. When I love, I don’t calculate or control; I allow the universe bring us together and our happiness to build naturally.

When I love, I share my mind with another. I watch our dreams intertwine and our thoughts dance together, let our words fill the spaces around us, making us whole and connected.

When I love, I sew a bond between my heart and another person’s. I give them my all, and then some. I love without restrictions because life is too short not to.

When I love, I love foolishly and freely and with everything I have because I was born with a big heart and haven’t learned how to love with anything less.

But please don’t mistake my big heart for a weak one.

Please don’t see my kindness as insecurity, my giving nature as overcompensation, my willingness to trust as desperation.

Please don’t see my loving ways as pathetic or my care for you as disingenuous. I’m not lying when I say I will put you first. I’m not pretending when I kiss you with passion. And I’m not fragile for allowing you to share a special place in my heart.

The thing about being a woman with a big heart—we’re often misunderstood. Our care is seen as ‘too much’ or ‘crazy.’ Our forgiving ways are seen as pitiful rather than powerful. Our support of the people we love(d) is seen as foolishly hanging onto the past, rather than the unconditional support that it is.

Instead of our hearts seen as strong, we’re looked at as fragile.
But the truth about being a big-hearted woman? We’re anything but.

A woman with a big heart is strong. She’s strong because she chooses love, again and again. She’s strong because she forgives, because she lets people in, because she believes in the good in people, even after pain.

A woman with a big heart is purposeful. She loves with intent and passion. She doesn’t hold back in sharing her emotions with the one she’s with. She doesn’t let the silly rules of the world keep her from being herself and letting a relationship bloom.

She is fearless in her pursuit of people.

And with that full, open heart, she is anything but weak.

So please don’t mistake my big heart as fragility, as feebleness, as spinelessness.

I am a woman who knows how to love and isn’t afraid to. I am a woman who gives and cares and supports because I will always stand beside those who have meant something to me. I am a woman who forgives because people are imperfect, and we all deserve chances to grow and become.

I am a woman who doesn’t hide, or walk away, or live a guarded life when it comes to love.

I am a woman with a big heart, not a weak one, and I will never be ashamed.