The Weight of a Glance

We spend our lives learning to speak, yet the most important things are those we choose to withhold. There is a specific gravity in a gaze that refuses to settle. It is not fear, exactly. It is a boundary. A way of saying that the inner world is not for public consumption, even when the body is standing in plain sight. We are taught that to be seen is to be known, but perhaps the opposite is true. Perhaps we are most ourselves when we retreat behind the curtain of our own silence. A child knows this instinctively. They understand that to look away is to protect the flame. We grow older and we lose this, offering ourselves up to the light until there is nothing left to hide. We forget the power of the threshold. We forget that some doors are meant to remain ajar, but never fully open.

Prasanta Singha has captured this delicate boundary in the image titled The Shy Little Girl. It is a quiet reminder of the space we keep for ourselves. Does the silence in her eyes feel familiar to you?