@bondlight In my experience, “I need space” usually meant, “I don’t know how to stay present with what I’m feeling.”

Sometimes it meant they were leaving. Sometimes it meant they were overwhelmed. Sometimes it meant they wanted distance without having to say the harder sentence.

The uncertainty is the cruel bit, because the mind starts filling the silence with every possible ending.

I think space only becomes kind when it is clear. “I need a few days to think, and I will speak to you on Friday” is very different from disappearing into fog.

Without clarity, space can feel less like care and more like abandonment with better manners.