“You are not required to set yourself on fire
to keep others warm."
– unknown
Feeling is a luxury
when you’ve spent
your entire life
making sure that others
don’t feel
too much,
forced to take on
the weight of everyone
else’s world but
your own –
You are the living
foundation,
walls,
and roof,
the structure that
everyone you love
depends on to stay
together.
You have learned to
equate your emotions
with weakness,
a vulnerability you
never allow yourself
to indulge in –
Because what would
everyone else do
if the walls they
depended on so fiercely
began to break?
You’ve made sure that
they are all
tucked tenderly into bed,
swaddled in security blankets
woven out of your
never-ending sacrifice –
They are intoxicated
with the stability you
provide them,
their eyelids too drowsy
with complacency
to see you
suffocating
under the pressure of their
ever-increasing demands –
But even the strongest stone
will eventually crack –
and you,
as stoic as you are,
cannot suffer silently
forever –
But you are not
the sum of the
concrete and brick
you have been
for so long –
So tell everyone that
you are tired of
burning,
just so that they could
stay warm,
take a deep breath
and finally allow yourself
to live –
Pick up your heaviest hammer,
start smashing your walls
to bits,
tear up all the carpets,
yank out every last brick –
Feel the warmth of the sun
caress your cheek,
enjoy the stability of the ground
strong beneath your feet,
and go forth with freedom,
to discover all that
you can be.