I stood in the dark hallway and listened to everyone else being asleep

Dear Delyara, The children breathing. The occasional movement from one room. My husband turning over. The central heating clicking softly into itself. The whole house in its vulnerable quiet shape. I don’t know why that moment touched me so deeply tonight. Maybe because it was the only part of the day where no one was asking anything from me and yet I still felt intensely connected to all of them. Maybe because tiredness can make a house feel like a burden by day and a blessing by night, sometimes within hours of each other. I stood there until the cold from the floor came through my socks and then went back to bed feeling both lucky and lonely. That combination visits me often.