RISIDUAL PAIN This sadness is not loud. It doesn’t beg or break things. It arrives quietly, sets its coat down, and stays. It belongs to the moments I wasn’t protected, to the words that made my pain negotiable, to the way I learned to go still when being felt was too much to ask. It settles in my chest, heavy but familiar, like a truth my body recognized before my mouth was allowed to. I don’t chase it away. I don’t dress it up as strength. I let it sit beside me, because it is mine, and it came from caring deeply where care was not returned. If I sleep, it sleeps too. If I wake, it waits. Not to hurt me but to remind me that what I felt was real, and worthy of being held. #SelfReflection #Resilience