Some tones still turn my body into a smaller animal

Dear Delyara, That’s the image that came to me this week. A smaller animal. More careful. More alert. More tuned to danger than to possibility. Certain tones still do that. Not always loud ones. Sometimes just sharpness, unpredictability, or emotional pressure wrapped in an ordinary moment. My body shifts before the mind can explain why, and by the time the explanation arrives, the body is already living in another room. That experience still leaves me lonelier than I know how to explain.