Circumstances have a way of beating you down without meaning to. It isn’t always some great emotional collapse or a life-altering moment; it can be weather, timing, exhaustion, or the accumulation of small forces you didn’t consent to. The wind pushing against your body, the cold biting your face, the sense that getting home requires more effort than it should.
I’m not actually crying.
It’s just really cold outside.
My face is red,
tears streaming down my face—
but don’t be fooled.
It’s only the circumstance
that brought me to this state.
I’m not so steady
in this piercing winter wind.
We’re crossing the street now.
My apartment is one more block away.
The wind picks up in the alley near my place,
makes it harder to get home.
But I can see the warm light.
It’s quieter inside.
It’s boring inside—
but there’s no wind.
Being “fine” is sometimes just being indoors. It’s not triumph, healing, or even happiness; it’s shelter. It’s choosing the quiet, the predictable, the uneventful because, for now, that’s enough. There is solace in the boring: in warmth, in stillness, in not having to brace yourself against anything. And when restlessness inevitably returns, when the walls feel too close and the quiet too loud, it’s okay to step back outside. It’s okay to want more. Wanting to face the storm again doesn’t mean you failed at resting; it just means you’re ready to feel the wind.
Photo by Musa Ortaç on Unsplash
Sometimes just getting through the weather and everyday small struggles feels like an achievement in itself. It reminds me that taking care of our spaces and routines can make those everyday battles a bit easier to handle. Speaking of which, for anyone juggling busy days and dealing with unpredictable conditions, whether it’s cold winds or rainy errands, services like https://cleaningny.com/services/car-dealership-cleaning/ can be a game changer – keeping your environment clean and stress‑free makes facing whatever comes just right a little more possible.