Fragments of the Quiet Mind

I saw her on the escalator. She was coming down as I was going up. That small, cinematic distance—just enough time to recognize, remember, and rehearse a lifetime in the space between two floors. Her hair was shorter now, the shade lighter, like the kind of choice you make after surviving something no one clapped for. She looked firmer in the shoulders, like she'd learned how to carry herself after being dropped too many times. More put-together. Less hesitant. But her eyes still had that old flicker—like she could still vanish into her own head mid-conversation. She was with someone. Maybe a partner. Maybe someone passing through. He had the look of someone she trusted with silence. The kind of man who didn’t ask her to shrink her dreams to fit a dinner conversation. I watched him lean in, say something only meant for her. She laughed, and it was soft, real, clean—like she no longer had to apologize for her joy. Then she saw me. Just a second too soon. Her expression shifte...

The last flight home was nearly full, and the window seat was a silent battleground. Not because anyone shouted or shoved, but because it represented something unspoken—something deeper than comfort or view. It was about space, about choice, about who deserved the sunlight that filtered through the scratched glass. I watched the subtle negotiations unfold, the hesitations, the quiet claims. The window seat wasn’t just a seat; it was a symbol, a small slice of privilege carved out in the cramped metal tube hurtling through the sky. It reminded me how in life, personal space isn’t just physical. It’s emotional territory, carved out carefully or wrestled for in silence. Some get it by default—an unspoken right. Others wait, watch, and sometimes surrender their claim, so the “chosen” can have their moment in the light. There’s a bitter irony here. We crave freedom, yet the very act of wanting a place to call our own binds us in unspoken hierarchies. The politics of proximity—who gets cl...