I Heard My Own Sigh in the Kitchen and It Sounded Older Than I Felt Inside

Dear Delyara, It came out of me without permission. One long sigh after the cupboard door wouldn’t shut properly, after the spoon fell, after the message buzzed again, after the child called from upstairs, after all the tiny ordinary things that wear a woman down in ways no single one could ever explain on its own. The sound startled me. Not because sighing is shocking. Because it sounded like someone who has been carrying a lot for a long time and no longer fully hides that fact in her body. I think there are moments when your own body tells the truth in a language your mind is still trying to make smaller. Tonight, that sigh was one of them.