Through the Fog

Tag: growth

  • This Foolish Life I’ve Lived

    This foolish life I’ve lived

    was loud with mistakes,

    heavy with lessons I didn’t want to learn

    until they bruised me into listening.

    I ran toward things that burned,

    called it passion,

    called it freedom,

    anything but fear.

    I loved too hard,

    stayed too long,

    believed in people

    the way you believe in miracles—

    recklessly,

    with my eyes closed.

    I’ve mistaken survival for strength,

    chaos for meaning,

    pain for proof

    that I was alive.

    But even in all that foolishness,

    I was searching—

    for quiet,

    for truth,

    for a reason to soften my grip

    on everything that hurt me.

    Maybe this life wasn’t foolish at all.

    Maybe it was just honest.

    And maybe every wrong turn

    was teaching me

    how to finally choose

    something gentle.

  • After the Fact

    Nothing teaches you faster

    than the sentence

    I wouldn’t do that again.

    It doesn’t mean you’re wiser now—

    just more aware

    of the cost.

    Awareness isn’t loud.

    It doesn’t brag.

    It just changes how you choose

    when no one is watching.

  • Self Destruction

    I don’t destroy myself loudly.

    There are no explosions,

    no dramatic exits.

    Just a slow erosion—

    choice by choice,

    silence by silence.

    I wear it like a habit.

    Like something familiar

    I reach for when I don’t know

    what else to do with my hands.

    Old patterns feel safer

    than unfamiliar hope.

    I sabotage gently.

    Miss the calls that might save me.

    Stay where I know I’ll be hurt

    because at least it’s predictable.

    Pain I recognize

    feels easier than healing

    I don’t trust.

    I tell myself I’m in control.

    That I could stop anytime.

    That this isn’t destruction,

    it’s coping.

    But the mirror keeps count

    of what I’m losing

    even when I refuse to.

    Some days it looks like recklessness.

    Other days it looks like discipline—

    like denying myself rest,

    joy, softness,

    as if I haven’t earned them yet.

    That’s the trick of it.

    Self-destruction doesn’t always beg.

    Sometimes it convinces you

    you deserve the damage.

    I don’t hate myself—

    that’s the lie people expect.

    I just don’t know

    how to be gentle

    without feeling exposed.

    So I choose what hurts

    before something else can.

    And still, somewhere under the ruin,

    there’s a part of me

    that notices the harm,

    that flinches,

    that wants out.

    That part is quiet.

    But it’s not gone.

  • Sweetest of the Sunflowers

    Sweetest of the sunflowers,

    how you’re the sun to me,

    the way your presence turns my face

    toward light

    even on days I’ve forgotten

    what warmth feels like.

    I don’t chase brightness anymore.

    I’ve learned how blinding it can be.

    But you,

    you don’t burn.

    You glow steady,

    soft enough to trust,

    strong enough to keep me standing.

    I find myself leaning your way

    without thinking,

    like instinct knows something

    my fear hasn’t caught up to yet.

    Even when I’m tired,

    even when I’m closed off,

    some part of me still turns toward you,

    hoping for a little more day.

    You see the parts of me

    that have been bent by weather,

    the places where storms lingered too long,

    and you don’t ask me to be anything else.

    You just stay.

    And somehow that’s enough

    to help me straighten again.

    I’ve spent so long growing in survival mode,

    roots tangled in doubt,

    petals guarded against disappointment.

    But around you,

    I don’t feel rushed to bloom.

    I feel allowed to open slowly,

    at my own pace,

    under a light that doesn’t demand

    more than I can give.

    If the world ever dims,

    if clouds gather the way they do,

    I know where I’ll turn.

    Not because I need saving,

    but because being near you

    reminds me that growth

    can still be gentle.

    Sweetest of the sunflowers,

    you don’t know how often

    you pull me back toward hope.

    How just being you

    makes me believe

    that even after long nights,

    there is still a reason

    to face the day.

  • Between What’s Said and Buried

    Photo credit-Thiébaud Faix

    Communication breaks me open

    in ways I don’t always survive.

    It drags the truth out of the corners

    I’ve kept in shadow,

    forces me to name the things

    I swore I’d never admit aloud.

    I’ve spent years learning

    how to make my silence look graceful—

    how to swallow storms,

    how to smile with a mouth full of grief,

    how to carry secrets

    without letting the weight show.

    But silence is a grave,

    and I’ve buried too many versions of myself

    trying to keep the peace.

    Trying to keep people.

    Trying to keep from falling apart

    in front of the wrong eyes.

    So when you ask me what’s wrong,

    I hesitate.

    Not because I don’t want to tell you,

    but because I don’t know

    how to hand you the truth

    without bleeding in the process.

    Communication isn’t easy for people like me—

    people who learned to fear their own voice,

    who were taught that honesty

    was the fastest way to lose someone.

    People who mistake vulnerability

    for danger.

    But still—

    I try.

    I open my mouth even when it trembles.

    I let the words come out

    messy, fractured, imperfect,

    hoping you’ll stay long enough

    to understand the quiet parts too.

    Because even though communication

    breaks me open,

    I’m tired of sealing myself shut.

    I’m tired of burying what I feel

    and calling it strength.

    Maybe this is what growth looks like—

    letting my truth exist

    outside of my own head,

    even if my voice cracks on the way out.

    Maybe this is how I rise

    from all the graves I dug for myself.