Sometimes, more seldom than few, I wake up and take a breath. Maybe to reacquaint my body with the day that is just starting. Maybe to find my place in a day that long started before me. Maybe to lie still and remind myself how lucky I am to be living. Maybe to listen to the outside winds already fighting their way through their daily battles. Conversation that, by no means concern me.

But despite the moments, I still wake up with a stranger. And no matter how long I have spent trying to get to know them, they will always and endlessly be this other person. Someone I will never truly know. Someone I am desperate to scratch away the bark at to get close to. To understand. To respect. To sympathise with. To feel at peace with. To love and for them to love me.

This stranger is me.

And I will never stop trying.

Leave what’s heavy, what’s heavy behind.