The Rising Phoenix

There comes a moment,
quiet, unseen, 
when what once broke you no longer holds you.

Not because the fire didn’t burn.
But because you did.

You became it.
You walked through it.
You carried the heat, the grief, the endings—
and somewhere in the ruin,
you remembered who you were.

The phoenix does not rise untouched.
It rises because it was reduced to ash.

And so do you.

Not the same.
Not softer.
But stronger in the places that once gave way.

From the ashes, we rise.