The love we give away is the only love we keep.

Love held back does not accumulate anywhere. Kept in reserve, waiting for the right moment or some guarantee of return, it slowly turns into something else: caution, or resentment, or a story about never having been met. What you keep is what you spent. Affection that went out and became part of another person’s life stays yours in a way that hoarded feeling never manages.

Give some away this week without first checking whether it will come back. Tell someone plainly what they mean to you, and let the telling be the whole of it.