Things I’m Still Learning

I’m still learning that healing is not linear,

that some mornings are tight-fisted,

others, soft like sky.

And both count.

I’m still learning that rest is not weakness,

and silence doesn’t always ask to be filled.

That a quiet room

can hold more truth

than a thousand words.

I’m still learning how to be seen without shrinking.

How to speak without apologizing for the echo.

How to show up

as I am,

not as I think they want me to be.

I’m still learning how to forgive what didn’t know better.

How to sit beside my former selves

and say:

You did what you could.

You made it here.

Thank you.

I’m still learning that love doesn’t always look like fireworks.

Sometimes it’s

the steady return,

the consistent soft,

the gentle no one claps for.

I’m still learning that peace doesn’t always arrive with clarity.

Sometimes it sneaks in

as breath,

as stillness,

as the choice to try again tomorrow.

And the more I learn,

the less I strive to be perfect

and the more I simply want

to be real.