You're afraid to be vulnerable with the person you love

I loved with nothing held back, so I know both the terror and the necessity of vulnerability. Without vulnerability, they love only your armor — if you never show them the real you, then what they love is the guarded surface, and you remain unloved even in a relationship, the self that most needs love hidden from it; the armor that protects you ensures you are never truly met. Vulnerability is the door intimacy comes through — the closeness you long for can only enter through the sharing of the tender, unguarded self, for there is no path to being deeply loved that does not pass through being deeply seen, so the vulnerability you fear is not an obstacle to the closeness you want but the very means of it. And open a little, and let them prove themselves safe — build it a little at a time, sharing one tender thing and seeing how they hold it, letting their care earn the trust for more. Begin with one small tender truth. What do you most keep hidden from the one you love?