Stop Holding The Door Open. Poem by Carl R Nicolas

Friendships most of the time
end in silence... The texting stops... No more spontaneous catch-ups...
No one reaching out... A painful, shattering truth begins to form...
They were over you long ago...

And one day you realize—
some of the people you once called close
never came looking for you... You were simply the last to know... They were only there when you were the anchor...
The giver, the one carrying the emotional load...

They didn't love you... they loved what you did for them...An absence
where a friendship used to live...

Some relationships survived
only because you kept them alive...

You were the one initiating.
You were the one planning.
You were the one paying the tab.
You were the one carrying the emotional weight...

The moment you stop... The whole structure collapses...

When one person consistently gives more,
the bond is not balanced,
it is borrowed... It's that simple. And that brutal...

Friendships have no contracts.
No legal bindings.
No formal structure holding them together...

The friendships that survive are not accidental.
They are intentional... They systematically strip away the superficial, leaving only what is real...

Do not grieve what was never shared equally...

Instead, honor the rare souls
who meet you halfway.
Who initiate.
Who reciprocate.
Who value presence over convenience...
Because true friendship
is not sustained by circumstance.
It is sustained by choice...

Stop shedding illusions...
Carl Nicolas.