The Quiet Weight We Carry
It began with a sound I could not ignore.
Not loud. Not even clear. Just a faint, rhythmic tapping. Like a loose thread brushing against wood. I first noticed it on a stage many years ago, under white lights that felt harsher than they needed to be. The room was full, the expectations fuller. I had spoken a hundred times before, across rooms larger than this, to audiences far more critical. Yet that day, as I adjusted the microphone, the tapping returned.
A soft tremor in my fingers.
What Keeps Passing Between Us
On most evenings, just before the lights come on across the street, I see them on their balcony.
Not doing anything remarkable.
He waters the plants. She adjusts the chairs. Sometimes they sit without speaking. Sometimes they laugh at something that does not seem important enough to laugh about. And yet, there is a small ritual between them. A passing of the watering can. A gentle tap on the shoulder. A quiet sound that somehow feels like a full conversation.
That little passing, that unnoticed exchange, has been there for years.