The Long Exhale

Lightning Pinkcloud held her breath for years.

One night, she gave a long, deep sigh of relief. And then another. And another. For days she sighed. She exhaled like wind rolling through desert canyons.

She was raised with two voices on her shoulders. One promised rest if she found the right person. The other insisted she must learn to provide for herself.

For years, she listened to the first. She waited. She hoped. She held her breath.

Then one clear, cool night, she stopped. She said yes. She said yes to herself. To her desires. To her body. To her life.

This took years of work. But the real work was in letting herself feel that it was okay to have what she wanted.

“Why do I deserve to have it good?” she asked the ancient stone sentinels surrounding Sedona.

“Because you’re here,” they said.

The answer shivered through her spine. It opened the first true, deep sigh of relief.

Because I’m here, she thought.
Because I’m here.

That is enough. That is reason enough.

Nothing to prove.

The shiver rippled through her. It reshaped everything she was made of.

She was a new being now.

Magical.
Deserving.

And when she opened fully into herself, the world shifted around her. Some things she had longed for began to appear. They were effortless and unexpected.