Not everybody who misses you deserves another version of you.

Being missed is not a claim on you. People often want back what a relationship provided them rather than the specific person you have become, and returning frequently means returning to the same conditions. Your softness, your patience, and your openness are things you can give again or not. Absence alone does not earn them.

When someone comes back, ask what has changed on their side rather than how much you miss them. Consider what you would be agreeing to resume. You are allowed to be warm from a distance without granting the full version of yourself again.