The "Midnight Ocean"

Dear Delyara, Depression isn’t always a dark cloud; sometimes it’s a vast, flat ocean where there is no wind and no land in sight. You just float there, waiting for a reason to move your arms. I’ve been drifting for months, watching the stars but feeling nothing. Today, I used this pen as an oar. I wrote about the numbness, the way food has no taste, and the way the sun feels like a spotlight I want to hide from. But as the ink moved, I felt a ripple. I realized that if I can describe the ocean, I am not drowning in it—I am observing it. I am leaving my heavy, waterlogged thoughts in the sanctuary’s archive. I am feeling the first breeze of hope on my face. I am moving toward the shore.