It is SUCH a breath of fresh air to meet and hear people talk about what they are doing to be a better person, apologize and hold themselves accountable without making excuses and defending their actions.
Once communication turns into a battlefield, something inside you shuts down. You stop talking not because you have nothing to say, but because you are tired of fighting. You withdraw. Not to punish. To protect yourself.
Respect dies next. It is hard to look up to someone who makes every discussion a war. You stop admiring. Affection follows. You cannot feel soft toward someone who makes your words feel like problems.
Resentment sets in. It grows quietly, feeding on every dismissed feeling, every argument that never got resolved, every time you swallowed your truth to keep the peace. Love cannot grow in a war zone. Truly love needs gentleness. It needs words that heal, not wound. It needs two people who can disagree without destroying each other.