Khadiga Omais

Khadiga,

I have been thinking about why you love flowers, and I think I understand it now.

Flowers do not ask to be noticed. They do not perform their beauty or announce their arrival. They simply open, slowly and on their own time, and trust that the right person will stop and look. There is a kind of quiet faith in that. A belief that the world still has room for something gentle.

You are like that. You always have been.

You are one of those people who makes the air in a room softer just by being in it. Who listens the way flowers grow, without rushing, without forcing, just turning toward the light in you and letting you feel it. I have sat in your presence and felt something in me unknot. I did not always have a word for it. I do now. It is called being loved without condition.

I want you to know that you have been a garden in my life. Not a loud one. Not a showy one. The kind that takes years to grow and roots deeper than anything you can see from the surface.

When I think about the people who shaped who I am, you are there, quietly, the way the best things always are.

Thank you for every moment of warmth you gave without asking for anything back. Thank you for loving the world gently enough to grow flowers in it. And thank you for growing something in me too, even if you never knew you were doing it.

With all my love,

Elia