The Quiet Between Heartbeats

I’ve been trying to write you, but the words keep settling in the wrong places. We spend so much of our lives rushing toward the next thing, convinced that the value of a day is measured by how much we have conquered or how far we have traveled. But there is a sacredness in the pause—that strange, suspended moment when the world keeps spinning, but you decide, just for a breath, to stop. It is in these unscripted intervals that we finally meet ourselves. We are so often defined by our movement, by the noise we make, and by the roles we play for others. Yet, there is a profound, quiet dignity in simply existing, in holding a space for yourself when no one is watching and nothing is expected of you. It is a rebellion of the soul to just sit, to let the morning light find you, and to be enough exactly as you are. Do you ever wonder if the stillness is where we actually live?

Willeke Tjassens has captured this exact feeling in her work titled The Man in the Street. It is a gentle reminder that even in the middle of a busy city, there is room to just be. Does this stillness speak to you as much as it speaks to me?