Stay with yourself

It’s easy to abandon yourself in small ways. Skip the meal. Scroll past the feeling. Talk as if you’re a problem to be solved by morning.

Staying is simpler than it sounds. Sit in the chair you already have. Put both feet on the floor. Name one thing that’s true: I am here. The lake doesn’t leave itself because the light is fading.

Liking every hour isn’t the price of staying in it. Presence isn’t praise. It’s refusing to vanish from your own life.

If tonight is heavy, stay anyway. Water. A window. One sentence that isn’t cruel. That’s self-love with its shoes off.