I’m good at the inhale.

I feel around for as much as I can.

And I breathe it in.

Everything I can find.

Inhale until I’m full.

The top of my lungs.

Until I think I know.

But the exhale.

What should be a steady release

Feels like a push.

A boulder up a hill.

My lungs don’t want to let go.

Don’t want to be empty.

But I’m trying to learn

The value,

The necessity

Of the exhale.

The empty

And the journey there.

Exhale.

Let every piece go.

Until there is only stillness.

I find it.

I feel it.

I find me there.

I live with me there.

One moment at a time.

Exhale.

This post was originally published on a Medium blog that I started in 2022. I’ve carried it over to Substack with its original date, just for the sake of having all my writing in one place.