You Cannot Make Someone Miss You Correctly

People sometimes disappear with a secret assignment for the person left behind.

Notice me. Regret this. Realize what you lost. Come back differently.

Then every day of silence becomes a disappointing performance review.

If you need distance, take it for what distance gives you: perspective, nervous-system quiet, room to notice your own habits, and protection from a cycle you no longer want to repeat.

Do not take it as a strategy for operating someone else's emotions from across town.

They may miss you and still not return. They may return and still not change. They may feel relief. They may feel exactly what you hoped and never tell you.

None of those outcomes can be controlled by perfect silence.

Leave when leaving is right. Stay away when staying away is healthy.

Let absence belong to you before you ask it to teach someone else a lesson.