Cost of Existence
Some things save us only for a while.
We hold on to whatever gets us through the night, even when it begins to hurt us in the morning. Not everything that kept us alive was meant to stay with us. Some things were never healing. They were only temporary shelters we mistook for home.
And survival always takes something.
Time. Innocence. Trust. Love. The versions of ourselves we thought we would become. Some parts of us never make it through, and some return so changed that we no longer recognise them.
Still, we keep moving.
We keep giving pieces of ourselves to work, to people, to expectations, to the endless pressure of becoming someone worthy of being here.
But your life has already cost you enough.
You do not need to wait until everything is finished before you become present in it. You do not need to earn the right to rest, to feel, or to choose yourself without explanation.
This is not a reminder to make every moment meaningful. That is just another demand placed on a life already carrying too much.
It is only a reminder to be here while you are here.
To go gently when you can. To stop treating yourself like another thing that must be sacrificed. To keep a little of your own life for yourself.
Not all resistance has to look like violence.
Sometimes, staying present for yourself is how you rage against the dying light.
