Here and Now

Here and now doesn’t look the way I once thought it would.

There was a time when I believed peace would feel like arrival —
like something you cross into and recognize immediately.

It doesn’t.

It feels more like choosing to stay.
Like learning how to live inside what is, without reaching for what was or rushing toward what’s next.

Some days it’s ordinary.
Some days it’s heavy.
Some days it surprises me.

I’m not waiting anymore for life to feel settled before I let myself be present.

This is the part I didn’t expect —
that here could be enough.
That now could hold joy and memory at the same time.

This is where I am.
Here and now.