Wait and see

If there’s one thing I know about people, that’s been hard-won and really worthwhile to learn, it’s this:

Wait long enough, and people will show you what you mean to them.

Some people are forthcoming, and by that I mean, they express your worth to them to the extent and within the timeframe that you yourself expect, or more and sooner. We get frustrated with people who take longer to show us or do it by different means - things we might struggle to see meaning in. Sometimes, of course, you can ask and get reassurance, but it’s never quite as reassuring as things that are shown to you spontaneously.

Now I am not the kind of person to need anyone to value me - I go where they do and make the most of it. But I had my doubts about someone recently, and I sat back and waited, not saying anything, and it took them showing up at my door (my inner poet was delighted) and saying out loud: “I don’t want you to feel like I’m taking you for granted” to really start to make it clear to me that I mattered to them. It means the world to me that those two things have happened without my prompting. And the thing that clinched it: me pouring out how I’d felt and them simply saying “that’s all OK with me.”