Dear stranger,
I do not know what brought you here today. Maybe you are exhausted in a way that sleep does not fix. Maybe you have been holding it together for so long that you have forgotten what it felt like before you had to. Maybe you are not even sure what is wrong, only that something is.

I want you to know that I have been there. Not a version of there. The actual there. The kind where you go through the motions of a whole day and come home and sit on the edge of your bed and feel nothing and everything at the same time. The kind where you smile at people and mean it, and then wonder later how that is even possible when you feel so far away from yourself.

What got me through was not one big thing. It was small ones. A song that found me at the right moment. A person who texted at exactly the right time without knowing why. A morning where the light came through the window at an angle I had not noticed before and I thought, that is beautiful, and I meant it.

You are still capable of that. I promise you. The part of you that feels things, that notices things, that cares about things, it is still there. It is just tired. And tired is not the same as gone.

You do not have to fix everything today. You do not have to feel better by tomorrow. You only have to stay. Just stay a little longer and let the small things find you.
They will. They really will.

With love from someone who made it through,
A stranger who is glad you are here.