It doesn’t stop.

The cacophony of sounds from the neighbours and the world outside, the garish sun streaming through the windows, the endless pile of paperwork and bills and responsibilities…  It never stops.  It never goes away.  Time to be a big girl.  That’s what they told us, when we all embarked into the world, believing it full of promise and potential and happiness.

Reality is another story.  It’s a picture worth ten thousand words most days, none of which seem to form from your lips, bruised and bleeding from the nervous gnashing of teeth.  It’s all we can take to breathe, sometimes.  Be strong, they admonish us.  What do they know?  What do they see?

They don’t feel how minutes became hours, how hours lived felt like days, weeks, months.  How a single year feels like a lifetime.

It must be nice to finish, you think.  To be done.  To be complete, whole, or at least allowed to pause.  To stop trying to impress the unseen audience prepared to boo you off stage at any moment’s notice.  But there is only a one way ticket to being truly finished, and for most, it’s not a feasible option.

If there’s another way, another time, another place to just be, let me know.  I’m ready to go.

Day 347:  Pictures of Success – Rilo Kiley