All Negative Emotions Are Unspent Love

They called them negative emotions.
Things to manage.
Medicate.
Breathe through.
Fix.

They told us to “process” our feelings
like we were cleaning up after ourselves.
Like feelings were
chores.
Punishment.
Homework.
A task to endure.

And so…
we agreed.
We called it pain.
We flinched from it.
We held our breath.

But it’s not pain.
Not the way we think.

It’s unfamiliarity.
It’s a sacred language
we were never taught to speak.

It’s the ache of home coming
but got buried
under the expectation to stay fine.

Your emotions are your own
unspent love.

Anger was protection.
Sadness was tenderness.
Grief was devotion.
Fear was care.
Shame was longing.

All of it —
just love
with nowhere to go.

You’ve got to
experience how much you have loved.

how deeply you have felt.

how much you have cared.

how you wished you lived.