I stood outside in the cold before looking at my phone

Dear Delyara, It was quiet enough to hear birds. Cold enough to wake me up honestly. Dark enough that the whole neighborhood still felt half-asleep. And for sixty seconds, I belonged only to the morning. Not to work. Not to school. Not to money. Not to notifications. Not to anyone else’s urgency. That one minute changed the whole tone of the day. I think we underestimate what gets into us first. This time it was cold air and silence. Not panic. That mattered.