Through the Fog

Author: Emery Lane Grey

  • Not Forever

    I don’t want

    forever

    to come in an orange bottle.

    Don’t want my mornings

    measured in milligrams,

    my stability

    scheduled between refills,

    my future

    printed in tiny pharmacy text

    I can barely read.

    I know what they say—

    that this is help,

    that this is balance,

    that this is how I stay

    safe

    and here.

    And part of me

    is grateful.

    Because I remember

    what life felt like

    before the quiet

    was possible.

    But another part of me

    keeps whispering:

    Is this the only way?

    Will I ever stand

    without the scaffolding?

    Will healing ever mean

    freedom instead of maintenance?

    I don’t want to fight

    the people trying to help me.

    I don’t want to romanticize

    the chaos I survived.

    I just want to believe

    there is a version of living

    where my body

    knows how to be steady

    on its own.

    Where peace

    isn’t borrowed.

    Where calm

    isn’t counted.

    Where staying alive

    doesn’t feel like

    a prescription.

    Maybe forever

    isn’t the point.

    Maybe the point

    is staying

    long enough

    to grow into someone

    who has choices

    I can’t see yet.

    So for now

    I hold two truths

    at the same time—

    I don’t want this

    to be forever.

    And I still want

    to be here

    long enough

    to find out

    what isn’t.

  • Missing You

    I didn’t think being away would feel like this —

    like living in a pause.

    The world keeps spinning,

    and I’m somewhere outside of it,

    trying to remember how to breathe again.

    They say this is where healing happens,

    but no one tells you that healing can feel

    a lot like breaking in private.

    Like tearing down the parts of yourself

    you built just to survive.

    I miss you in the quiet moments —

    in the slow mornings when the walls hum softly,

    in the long nights where time forgets how to move.

    It’s not just your voice I miss,

    it’s the way your presence steadied me,

    the way your silence felt like understanding.

    Some days, I want to tell you everything —

    how it hurts to be here,

    how it’s lonely even surrounded by people,

    how I’m learning to sit with the pieces of myself

    I used to keep buried.

    But I know I’m here for a reason.

    I know I have to face the dark before I can find the light again.

    Still, I carry you with me —

    in every small step, every shaky breath,

    every promise that I’ll come back whole.

    Missing you isn’t weakness.

    It’s proof that I’m still capable of love,

    even while learning how to love myself again.

  • The Flowers in the Vase

    The flowers in the vase are still beautiful, even as they begin to die.

    Their colors have softened, their edges curled inward — as if holding on to what little life remains. Every day they grow a little quieter, but somehow, they still make the room feel alive.

    There’s something haunting about beauty that’s temporary. You can see the way time touches it — gently, but inevitably. The petals fall, one by one, and yet I can’t bring myself to throw them away. Maybe it’s because they remind me that even endings can be beautiful.

    Sometimes I think love is like that — the flowers in the vase.

    We keep it close even after it’s faded, because letting go feels like erasing what once made us feel alive. We hold on to the memory of its bloom, even as it wilts in front of us.

    But maybe that’s what makes it real. The fact that it doesn’t last. The way it hurts to watch beauty fade — that’s proof that it mattered. That it was alive.

    And when I look at those flowers, I don’t see loss.

    I see the softness of something that once thrived, the quiet surrender of something that loved the sunlight so much it stayed open even as the light disappeared.

    Maybe beauty isn’t in the bloom after all.

    Maybe it’s in the staying — the way we keep something long after it’s gone, just to remember how it once made us feel.

  • Wildfire

    Maybe it’s just the way

    your heart leans toward comfort—

    toward quiet things,

    easy truths,

    places that don’t feel like risk

    or revelation.

    And that’s all right.

    Not every soul

    is meant to wander into the flames,

    not every pair of hands

    is steady enough

    to hold something burning.

    Some hearts want gentle—

    the kind of calm

    that doesn’t shake their edges,

    the kind of love

    that never asks them

    to grow,

    to change,

    to rise beyond who they were yesterday.

    Some hearts

    weren’t made

    to love a wildfire—

    a woman who loves fiercely,

    breaks honestly,

    and glows even

    in her darkest moments.

    A wildfire is a force—

    unapologetic,

    uncontained,

    the kind of heat

    that leaves you touched forever

    even if you only stood close

    for a moment.

    She doesn’t smolder quietly.

    She burns bright

    because she has to,

    because something in her

    was never meant

    to be small.

    And if you could not stay—

    if the fire felt too much,

    too honest,

    too alive—

    that’s all right.

    Not every story

    is written for the flames.

    But remember this:

    what you left behind

    will still rise,

    still blaze,

    still turn her own scars

    into something golden.

    Because that’s what fire does.

    It survives,

    it transforms,

    it becomes.

  • Sometimes We’re Broken and We Don’t Know Why

    Sometimes we’re broken

    and we don’t know why—

    there’s no moment to point to,

    no sharp edge we tripped over,

    no memory that explains

    the heaviness we wake up with.

    Some wounds aren’t from events,

    but from seasons.

    From slow storms

    that soaked us through

    before we even realized

    we were standing in the rain.

    Sometimes the sadness

    isn’t loud or dramatic—

    it’s quiet,

    a small tear in the soul

    that widens over time

    until the light slips through

    and we mistake it for emptiness.

    We say we’re fine

    because nothing “bad” happened,

    but our hearts ache anyway,

    caught between the person we were

    and the one we’re trying to become.

    And maybe that’s the truth—

    maybe being broken

    doesn’t always have a reason.

    Maybe sometimes

    the heart just gets tired

    from carrying everything alone.

    But even then,

    even in that quiet unraveling,

    you’re not beyond repair.

    You’re just learning yourself

    in the hardest way—

    piece by fragile piece,

    pain by honest pain.

    And one day,

    the why won’t matter

    as much as the fact

    that you made it through

    without needing an answer.

  • Borrowed Happiness

    I was happy in the haze of a drunken hour,

    where the edges blurred

    and the ache softened just enough

    to feel like relief.

    For a moment, I didn’t have to carry

    the full weight of myself.

    Laughter came easier,

    memories felt kinder,

    and the world loosened its grip.

    In that fog, pain was distant—

    muted, negotiable,

    something I could outrun

    with another swallow,

    another borrowed sense of peace.

    I mistook numbness for healing

    and silence for rest.

    But heaven knows I’m miserable now.

    Clear-headed and heavy,

    left alone with everything

    I tried not to feel.

    The truth waits patiently

    for sobriety,

    for morning light,

    for the moment pretending runs out.

    There’s no romance in the aftermath—

    only the echo of what I avoided

    and the knowing that happiness

    built on escape

    never survives the night.

    I was happy for an hour, yes.

    But misery has a longer memory.

    And now I’m standing in it,

    fully awake,

    trying to learn how to live

    without needing to disappear

    to feel okay.

  • When the Nights Get Heavy

    Dear God, please—

    I’m trying to hold myself together

    with hands that won’t stop shaking.

    The nights get long,

    the thoughts get heavy,

    and the world feels too sharp

    for a heart this soft.

    Dear God, please—

    quiet the noise in my head

    before it swallows the parts of me

    I’m still trying to save.

    I’ve been running from shadows

    that look too much like my past,

    and I’m tired of losing sleep

    to memories that won’t stay buried.

    Dear God, please—

    remind me I’m not alone

    when I’m convinced I am.

    Remind me You see something in me

    I’ve never been brave enough to believe.

    Hold me when I fall apart,

    even if all I bring You

    is the wreckage of another long night.

    Dear God, please—

    don’t let go.

    Not now.

    Not when I’m this close

    to breaking or becoming—

    I don’t even know which anymore.

    Just stay.

    Just guide.

    Just breathe with me

    until I can breathe again.

    Dear God, please.

  • What I’d Leave Behind

    I would paint the walls

    with every beautiful thing I am

    and every terrible thing I’ve ever been —

    layered thick,

    no clean lines,

    no apology for the mess.

    Joy smeared beside regret,

    love dripping into shame,

    gold pressed hard

    against the bruised colors

    no one likes to look at too long.

    I wouldn’t fix the edges.

    I wouldn’t soften the truth.

    There would be laughter

    caught mid-breath,

    and grief so old

    it’s learned how to sit quietly.

    There would be nights

    I survived out of spite,

    and mornings

    I stayed for no good reason at all.

    It wouldn’t be pretty.

    It would be mine.

    A room that says:

    this person felt deeply,

    broke often,

    kept going anyway.

    A testament to contradictions —

    light bleeding into dark,

    dark refusing to erase the light.

    If anyone stood there long enough,

    they’d see it wasn’t destruction

    I was trying to leave behind —

    it was proof.

    Proof that I was here.

    That I contained multitudes.

    That even the terrible things

    never managed

    to erase the beautiful ones.

  • Where We’re Headed

    I’ve thought about you all night—

    in the quiet between hours,

    when the world loosens its grip

    and thoughts stop pretending

    to be small.

    You showed up in fragments:

    the sound of your voice,

    the way your name settles

    in my chest,

    the life we’re slowly walking toward.

    Sleep came and went

    without permission.

    My mind stayed awake,

    circling you like a promise,

    not desperate—

    just sure.

    If you felt a pull in the dark,

    a warmth you couldn’t explain,

    maybe it was me—

    already holding space

    for where we’re going next.

  • Regret is My Constant Companion

    Regret walks beside me

    like a shadow that never learned

    how to leave when the sun comes up.

    It knows my footsteps,

    matches my breathing,

    whispers the names of moments

    I wish I could touch again

    with gentler hands.

    I carry whole conversations

    that never happened,

    apologies folded small

    inside my chest,

    waiting for a door

    that doesn’t exist anymore.

    Sometimes regret is loud—

    a storm of what if

    crashing against the ribs

    until sleep feels impossible.

    Sometimes it is quiet,

    just a chair pulled out

    at the table of memory,

    sitting across from me

    without speaking,

    and somehow saying everything.

    I used to think regret

    was punishment—

    proof that I had ruined

    the only life I was given.

    But maybe regret is only love

    with nowhere left to go.

    Maybe it stays

    because something in me

    still cares enough

    to wish I had chosen

    more gently.

    And if that’s true,

    then regret is not my enemy.

    It is the part of my heart

    that refuses to become careless.

    The part that still believes

    even broken people

    can learn how to hold the world

    without hurting it.

    And maybe one day

    regret will loosen its grip,

    not because the past changed,

    but because I finally did—

    soft enough

    to forgive the person

    who didn’t know

    how to be me yet.