Enough Just by Being Here

I have a palm.

At first glance it is a strict little plant, a small tree just over half a meter tall. It came to me as a gift a couple of years ago, at a time when my world was anything but steady. It stepped into that shaky world very quietly and settled into its white pot like a bird into its nest.

It has been with me ever since. Through the mornings I didn't want to begin and the nights that didn't want to end. Through the long silences. It saw all of it, and it never said a word.

It never asked me how I was. It never gave me advice. It never needed me to be better than I was that day.

It just stood there, straight and green, being itself.

There is nothing remarkable about it, really. It doesn't bloom. It barely changes from season to season. And yet, I find myself looking at it more than at almost anything else in the room.

Its leaves are long, straight and thin, like the fingers of an elegant young woman. Not reaching for anything. Not holding on. Just resting in the air, the way hands rest when someone has finally stopped trying to prove anything.

Sometimes I think I know her, that young woman. Maybe she is someone I was, long ago, before I learned to clench my hands around everything. Maybe she is someone I still hope to become. Someone who can sit in a quiet room, let her fingers fall open, and simply be.

The palm does nothing to earn its place. It doesn't help, doesn't fix, doesn't save anyone. And still, every time I look at it, something in me becomes a little calmer.

What grace it is, to simply exist, and for that to be enough to make someone a little happier.

I am learning, slowly, that this might be true for people too.

Is there something near you that makes you calmer just by being there? Something that asks nothing of you? You can tell me about it.

With love, from HerWay

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