*This is for anyone waiting to feel ready before they begin...*
A Cage With a View
~ by
@Lauren of Light ☀️
I had a chance, but when the moment came, I swallowed my voice so I wouldn’t look lame.
I felt the doorway swing open, warm and wide, then locked it tight from the inside.
Good news arrived like a sunrise on skin, I tasted the joy, then I buried the grin.
I stared at the ceiling and counted the cost, already grieving what hadn’t been lost.
I made some friends, and the spark felt true, like laughter that knew what my silence went through.
But a whisper said, Careful, don’t let them in, so I smiled from the edge, and I stayed paper-thin.
I saw a job I could surely do,
but my mind wrote a verdict before I even flew. They’ll never pick you. Don’t bother. Don’t try.
So I folded my résumé and called it “goodbye.”
I met a girl and she stole my heart,
and for once I believed I could play my part. But fear poured poison in every sweet start: You’ll surely lose her. Why offer your art?
So I wore a suit of armor, polished and tight, a hallway of steel between me and the light.
I learned to look fine, I learned to seem brave, while my real self waited, unpaid, in a cave.
I dodged compliments quick, like they carried a blade, I turned down the music, kept debts to be paid.
I feared being seen, so I edited me,
cut whole chapters out just to feel “safe” and “clean.”
And here’s what it does, what that habit will teach: it doesn’t just stop you, it shrinks what you reach.
It makes every “maybe” a permanent “no,” and calls it being smart while you quietly go.
It makes you rehearse every worst-case scene, then hands you the script like it must be serene.
It sells you a cage with a view of the sky, and you swear you’re alive, but you never quite fly.
It makes you mistrust every door that appears, and treat your own hope like a con made of fears.
You start to believe you were born to stay small, so you don’t risk the rise, so you don’t risk the fall.
Meanwhile life keeps moving, impatient and kind, leaving footprints you’ll never go back to find.
First kisses unsaid. First steps never tried. Whole versions of you that just… starved on the side.
So life flew by, in the blink of an eye,
while I argued with ghosts and I called it “being wise.”
And on my deathbed, under hospital light, I watched all my almost dissolve into night.
Not “I should’ve been perfect.” Not “I should’ve been sure.”
Just: “I should’ve been honest. I should’ve endured.”
I should’ve said yes when my chest said I can, and let my hands shake while I still made a stand.
So let this be a lesson for all who read: your fear is a voice, but it isn’t the lead.
The mind is an ally, a map, a machine, but it cannot replace what the heart truly means.
Because coherence is more than just logic and plans, it’s courage in motion with trembling hands.
It’s choosing to live while you’re still afraid, not waiting for fear to politely fade.
So celebrate loudly. Let good news be loud.
Call your friends back. Stand out in the crowd.
Apply for the job. Let your name take its space.
Love like you mean it, with nothing to brace.
Take off the armor. Let daylight get through. It was never protection, it was hiding from you.
And if you feel fear, let it come, let it stay, then walk through the moment, each time, anyway.
#poetry #wisdom #nostr #puravida
