LOVE WINS ERA · THINK ABOUT THIS

Don't Hurt Me

Sun, 20 Sep 2026

There is something surreal about being asked not to hurt someone while they are simultaneously doing the exact thing you've told them hurts you.

Please don't leave me. Please don't betray me. Please don't break my heart. Please don't hurt me.

Meanwhile, you're standing there bleeding from wounds they apparently cannot see. There is tenderness in their fear. You can understand why they're afraid. You can even want desperately to protect them from exactly the pain they fear.

But eventually a question arrives:

Who is protecting me from you?

I can understand someone's fear without volunteering to be destroyed by it.

I can care about the wounds that shaped someone without allowing those wounds to become weapons pointed at me.

And I can love someone while acknowledging that the way they are loving me is tearing me apart.

If you need me, I'll be 42 Degrees From Here.

Brandy Lee Novak