I’d like to say I’m a wise sage who can guide you through this. That I know how to reach the other side, but the truth is sometimes it just is for me, and I find myself as helpless as the first day I fought against the darkness.

The overwhelm is crushing. I feel like I have to find some way out. There has to be some way out. I thrash against the chains that bind me. I feel like if only I can find the right answer I can be free.

And this is when I know the answer. The answer I don’t want. the answer that is no answer. The discomfort isn’t going away. The more I thrash, the more I look for escape, the more I try, the more desperate and despairing I become.

So I accept this is me now. I accept that there is no escape, at least right now. I accept that I need to be here now and to live with this burden now. To put one foot in front of the other without seeing light at the end of the tunnel.

I lay down the best solutions, the bigger picture and I enter the now. I hate the now. It hurts. I don’t want to hurt. I don’t want to do this. It doesn’t feel fair that this is so hard.

Hold on. I’m holding on. Don’t give up. We are alone in the darkness together. I can’t see you, I can’t feel you, I can’t hear you – but I know we are here. An untold number wading through the darkness – step by step.