After the Deadline, There's Still You

Your worth isn't in what you finish; it's in how you show up.

This morning, I remembered who I am.

Not in a loud, triumphant way.

It was more like a whisper that had been waiting patiently for silence.

I remembered that I'm independent.

Creative. Intelligent. And always paved my own way.

I found it strange that I'd forgotten.

Ten years of pushing, producing, proving

for others.

Building there dreams, there projects.

Somewhere in that motion, I drifted.

Not all at once. Slowly. Quietly.

Until the person I was, became someone I managed, not someone I embodied.

In Zen, they say: "Returning to the source is stillness."

And this morning, I returned.

Not to some grand version of myself

Just to the one who sees. Who shows up.

Not because something is due. But because he is.

He always was and now its time to return.

After the deadline, there's still you.

The one beneath the schedule.

The one who builds from the inside out.

And that's more than enough.

Field Note:

You existed before the work, and when the work is done, you stand not finished, but free.