The Hidden Journal

The quiet changed me.
It taught me how to listen —
not to the world,
but to myself.

───

For a while, I thought the silence was punishment.
A kind of emptiness I had to survive.
But it was never empty.
It was waiting —
a still space that held room for who I was becoming.

───

Now the noise feels different.
The world is still loud,
but I don’t lose myself in it anymore.
I know where my center is —
I can feel it hum when I start to drift too far.

───

After the quiet,
the smallest things feel holy.
A laugh.
A song.
The sound of morning light touching the window.
Life moves again —
and this time, I move with it.

───

I used to chase meaning.
Now I let it find me.
It always does —
after the quiet.

— Desiree