More often than not, we grow thorns around the things we’re most afraid to lose. At first, they’re there to protect. From the hands of others. From pain. From everything that once had the power to break us. But over time, the line between protection and a cage becomes almost impossible to see. Because in trying to shield someone from the whole world, we may quietly take the world away from them. And perhaps the hardest thing to learn is how to hold someone without holding them too tightly. To protect without closing them in. To love without turning that love into thorns.