There was a time when I measured my days by whether the phone rang. I would set it down and pick it up again without thinking, as if the act of checking might change something. It never did. One evening, I placed it face down and realized how much power I had handed to silence. Love should not reduce you to waiting beside a screen. That was the moment I understood something important: I could miss my son and still move forward. I could leave the door unlocked without standing in it. I could live anyway.