INTERLUDE: THE HERMIT SPEAKS

A Fool’s Journey:

I did not come here to hide.

I came here because the world grew so loud, I forgot what my own voice sounded like.

Now, in the quiet, I hear it.

Thready at first, uncertain.

Then louder, like a bird that’s remembered how to sing.

But oh, how my heart pounds in the silence.

Every time I lay down, it rises like thunder—my chest tight, my breath shallow. My body does not yet know that the war is over. It flinches at peace. It braces against softness.

Rest feels like falling.

Like forgetting the armor that once saved me.

But I am not what happened to me.

I am not the panic.

Not the noise.

Not the ache.

I am the lantern in the dark.

And I am learning that I do not have to run anymore.

This cave is not a trap—it is a cradle.

And slowly, with love, I am teaching my body that it is safe to come home.