Enough! is Enough
We all know the slow bleed, that creeping weight that bends your spine and steals your light. The silent war waged in whispered words and withheld warmth. This is for you.
It began so quietly, almost unnoticed.
A word here, a pause there, silences that demanded you fill them.
What felt like conversation was a slow game of marking where you would bend.
One day, warmth and approval would wash over you-
Your chest would fill, the world sharpening into colour.
But just as fast, it would be pulled away-
A cutting remark, a dismissive look-
And suddenly you folded in on yourself.
The same world went grey, the air thick and suffocating.
Up, down. Light, dark.
The cruel rhythm of being played like a fiddle.
One day, cherished and seen,
The next, invisible and unwanted.
You chased the light days, not knowing they were bait,
Designed only to make the dark days deeper, colder.
Slowly, imperceptibly, the erosion began.
You stopped looking in the mirror because the face staring back was a stranger.
A hollow shell worn thin by daily drip-feed of disdain,
Quiet disapproval, subtle sabotage, the slow murder of self-worth.
You moved through days shadowed by ugliness not your own,
Dragging the weight of someone else’s cruelty like chains around your ankles.
You forgot what it felt like to glow, to laugh freely, to be enough.
Then, in the bleakness, a spark.
Not from them- still rehearsing their cruel game-
But from inside you, a flicker of defiance, a whisper of rebellion.
You realized life was never meant to be lived under the shadow of that ugliness.
You stepped up.
Not with a shout or storm,
But with a fierce, quiet Enough.
Enough of bending. Enough of breaking.
Enough of hiding in fragments of a soul that once burned bright.
In that moment, the mirror shifted.
The stranger’s face softened, warmed, bloomed into recognition.
You stood taller, fiercer, ready to reclaim the light you were always meant to wear.
It was time- finally- to recognize that life is worth more.
That speaking out against the slow stripping of your soul is not weakness, but courage.
And that those who wield cruelty without conscience need their own reckoning.
Introspection, justice, change-
Because no one should bear the weight of being unseen, unheard, unvalued.
This is your stand.
Your light in the dark.
Your refusal to be less than whole.
It was time- finally- to recognize that life is worth more.
To speak against the slow unravelling of the soul,
Not as a whisper, but as a roar woven from quiet courage.
Those who wield cruelty without conscience,
Let them face the mirror they refuse to meet,
And wrestle with the shadows they have cast.
Because no heart was meant to beat in silence,
No spirit to shrink beneath the weight of unseen chains.
You are the light breaking through long winters,
The fire that refuses to be smothered,
The voice rising from ashes, singing:
I am here. I am whole. I am worthy.
There’s something in this that feels painfully familiar, the way harm rarely arrives loudly but through tiny everyday shifts that slowly bend you out of shape. I really appreciated the way you captured that slow erosion, not as a single event but as a pattern that becomes a kind of atmosphere you end up breathing without even noticing.
The movement from collapse into defiance felt powerful, especially because you didn’t write it as a dramatic explosion but as something quiet and steady, an “enough” that grows from inside rather than reacting to someone else’s game. That felt very true.
What stayed with me most was the sense of reclaiming one’s own mirror, one’s own reflection, the moment where the face comes back into view. There’s so much tenderness in that image. Beautifully written and deeply resonant. Thank you for sharing
This is a beautiful self reclamation, Brenda. You go girl!!