Leaning into the Unknown

“I’ve got you,” he said, lifting my injured shoulder onto the massage table, warm pressure settling me.

“I’ve got you.”

Three words, and my body remembers safety, fear dissolves, and I find permission to lean into the unknown.

“I’ve got you.”

I want to learn to say it to myself, and to hold that space. This is a new quest, one that has evolved since my teenage and maiden years, when I truly believed I could find it in a partner.

What does it mean to feel safe, really? Big word, used a lot, and that’s okay. Feeling safe begins with a basic human need: protection from danger, the elements, and hunger. As life unfolds, it threads into our longing for love and belonging.

We are built for community, built to support each other. As kids, we look to caregivers to keep us safe, and as we grow, many of us look to partners for that same feeling, sometimes forgetting how to find it in ourselves.

This isn’t a lesson on the nervous system; it’s simply my experience, the honest longing I notice to feel safe with a male partner, the pull in my feminine to rest in his arms, and how that has led me, in past relationships, to manipulate and play games. Over the years, it trickled, and now, at last, it surges through like a river: the parallel call to offer that same unwavering “I’ve got you” to myself.

I hope these words tickle your appetite and awaken that desire in you, that you remember you are enough, you are loved, and you belong in this world.

I’ve got you.

With love,

Tahl