The Water Test

Which of them is stronger

The one who watches
or
the one who lives?

The truth:

The part that watches is loud.
The part that lives is quiet
but it is still there.

And it only gains strength from small experiments in movement.
Not from forcing yourself.
Not from rushing.
Not from trying to “fix anxiety.”

It grows from proving to yourself — in small, humane steps —
that you can go into the water and come back out.

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Author: Renee Newlon

I am a Turkish American writer and photographer. I work in short-form prose, poetic fragments, and photography. I don’t photograph the event; I photograph the moment after the event. A few things that stay with me: Plato’s Cave, Oberg’s Culture Shock, and Beethoven’s Ever thine. Ever mine. Ever ours. My greatest teacher was my college philosophy professor, Sister Jane Sullivan, who taught me how to think and how to see.

2 thoughts on “The Water Test”

  1. I liked how you wrote about small steps and being gentle with yourself.
    That’s a really emotionally intelligent way to think

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