they said it was okay to just be, and for a while I didn't even know what that meant, didn't understand the shape of it inside me or what it was asking me to release, but then the words came out of my mouth, just for myself, a gentle recognition, and there was this strange jolt, like my bones had finally settled into their rightful place, a kind of internal hum, not from without but from deep within, and the grip, the one I didn't even know had persisted in my gut, it just softened, a slow unwinding of years that tasted like grit and tight spaces, and for a second I just stood there, completely disoriented by the sheer simplicity of it, the absolute lack of needing to push or pull or prove anything, just a profound sense of having arrived somewhere I didn't even know I was looking for, a place without edge or pressure, a deep, abiding sense of rightness finally permeating all the empty corners.