For the Ones Who Are Still Here

You are not weak  

for breaking.

Even the earth splits  

to let something new  

push through.

I know

you’ve carried silence  

like it was your duty,  

held your breath  

in rooms that never chose you,  

called survival “living”  

just to make it through the day.

But listen

this is not where your story ends.

Not in the ache.  

Not in the unanswered questions.  

Not in the versions of you  

that had to disappear  

just to keep the peace.

You are allowed  to return to yourself.

Slowly.  Messily.  Without apology.

Let the tears come

they are not a sign of collapse,  

they are the body  finally telling the truth.

Let the anger rise not to destroy you,  but to remind you  that something sacred  

was crossed.

And when you feel empty do not rush to fill it.  Sit there.

Because emptiness  

is not the absence of you

it is the space  where you begin again.

You don’t have to be whole  

to be worthy.  You don’t have to be healed  to be loved.  

You don’t have to be fearless  

to take one step forward.

Just one.

That is enough.

There is a version of you  

on the other side of this not untouched,  not unchanged,  

but rooted.

Clear. Unshakeable  

in ways you have not yet seen.

So stay.

Stay through the breaking.  

Stay through the rebuilding.  

Stay even when it feels like  

nothing is happening.

Because something is.

You are.

And that

even now

is healing.