Time makes friendship stronger, but love weaker.

Two kinds of closeness age differently. What friendship is made of, shared hours, ease, knowing how someone takes bad news, only accumulates. The heat that begins a romance runs partly on novelty, and novelty is the one ingredient that cannot be topped up. The cooling is not a verdict on the love; it means the thing now needs different fuel from the one that started it.

If a long attachment feels quieter than it was, resist reading that as decline. Ask what would make it more like a friendship: unhurried time, real curiosity, some interest in who the other person has become.