Did the summer love scald you, or was it a loss that burned you out? Was it devastation so cataclysmic, you cannot fathom where it began, just that it did? It was irrelevant where it started, just that it brought destruction.
I wonder how the house of cards of your heart stood upright till now. Then, it was but a house of cards; part of its beauty was how it could crumble at the slightest of winds; part of its nature is how it can be built back up again. I reckon you aren’t here to get cheap inspiration, are you? I understand you need silence, so I will sit with you.
Sometimes, we wanted a silent spectator. To know someone watched as we jumped through hoops, solving what needed to be done, doing what was required, yet not having them ask if we were okay. Only the presence of another was enough. I could be your spectator.
All you have to do is stare at these words for a little while and go about your quest. I will be watching. I don’t offer this out of some noble cause; trust me, I am as trapped as you are, but I’ve learned if there’s any way out of the hole, it’s together. I’ll watch you. In your own way, from so further down in time and cities apart, you’ll watch me, too.
Often, however, it was not about what we wanted. Often, we needed the truth, not that we knew it. So, I must try. I must speak up like a silent spectator who has watched far too long from the sidelines. The truth is to live was to fail at some point. Perhaps, the stories we told ourselves did not always help us. Maybe, we grew fond of them.
We had to learn to take sorrow as granted as we took joy. The collision courses we were on would never make sense to us, or at all. Entire empires have crumbled without a sign; what is your house of cards in front of them? Perhaps the best bet for us was to move forward when we saw a road ahead—even a glimpse—regardless of how steep, long or foggy it seemed.
And I understand how this is nothing new and how this is what you did not want in the first place. I know how all this has been said before by people far greater than I will ever be. And I know you know how all of this is undoubtedly true.
And yet, you still cry, and yet, I understand.