You have always thought if you opened your mouth in open water you would drown, but if you didn't open your mouth you would suffocate. So here you ar… - Caleb Azumah Nelson

It's easier to hide in your own darkness, than to emerge, naked and vulnerable, blinking in your own light.

You know that to love is both to swim and to drown. You know to love is to be a whole, partial, a joint, a fracture, a heart, a bone. It is to bleed and heal. It is to be in the world, honest. It is to place someone next to your beating heart, in the absolute darkness of your inner, and trust they will hold you close. To love is to trust, to trust is to have faith. How else are you meant to love? You knew what you were getting into, but taking the Underground, returning home with no certainty of when you will see her next, it is terrifying.

It’s one thing to be looked at, and another to be seen.