What Happened When I Finally Stopped Saying “I’m Fine”
“The wound is the place where the Light enters you.” ~Rumi
The first winter, I learned to lie cheerfully.
“How are you settling in?” someone would ask, and I would smile and say, “Really well, thank you.” That was the most fluent English I spoke all day.
I had left a warm, loud, crowded life and landed in a quiet apartment in a country where the cold did something to the air that made it hurt to breathe. I was a student, far from everyone who knew my name properly. I was supposed to be grateful.
And I was grateful. …
