For When You Feel Lost: You Are Not the Winter 🌱

When pain has no name,
we sometimes give it our own.

We live inside it long enough
that we begin to mistake the season for the tree.

But winter never asks the branches
whether they remember being green.

It takes the leaves.
It leaves the shape behind.

And somewhere beneath the bark,
where no one can see,
what looks like silence
is learning to become a leaf. 🌱

So eat.
Drink.
Rest.

Let the sunlight find your skin
without asking it to fix anything.

You do not need to understand
what your whole life is becoming today.

Some things need to remain unfinished
for a little while.

Leave tomorrow some empty space.
There may be something there
you have not met yet.

Even without an answer,
keep a little water for your roots.

A tree does not know why it must endure winter.
It simply keeps its roots beneath the earth.

And when it blooms again,
perhaps it will bloom more beautifully
than it ever did before.

You are not the winter you are passing through.

And when you bloom again,
you will carry something with you
that you could only have learned
while everything was bare.

Sincerely,
Jelly 🪼