✨ Post Five — “The Art of Rising”

Rising isn’t loud.

It doesn’t always look like sunlight through storm clouds,

or the echo of applause after surviving.

Sometimes, it’s quieter —

a breath you didn’t realize you’d been holding.

You rise every time you forgive yourself

for the ways you had to survive.

You rise when you let softness touch

the places that were taught only to harden.

You rise when you stop waiting

for someone else to see the light in you

and decide to carry it yourself.

There is art in that —

in the small, stubborn act of choosing joy

after knowing only the ache of endurance.

There is grace in standing still

and realizing you are no longer running.

💌

This is your masterpiece —

not the wound, not the war,

but the way you rise

without asking permission to shine.