Chat2-holding pattern

 Holding Pattern

These days arrive without edges,
a weather system stalled over the house.
Nothing breaks, nothing clears.
Even the clocks seem to hesitate
before committing to the next minute.

You move carefully,
as if carrying water in open hands—
meetings, messages, obligations
sloshing but not spilling,
because spilling would cost more
than you can afford.

There is a discipline to this kind of living:
to keep showing up without applause,
to choose steadiness over drama,
to accept that progress may look
like maintenance rather than motion.

Some nights you mistake exhaustion for failure.
But survival has its own quiet intelligence.
It knows when to pause,
when to narrow the field of vision
to the next necessary act.

If there is hope here,
it is not loud.
It sits beside you,
unremarkable and patient,
waiting for the day
when forward motion feels like movement again.

Until then,
breathe.
Hold the line.
This, too, counts as strength.