A Real Moment
The morning a song came back.
For months, music was just gray noise. Every day I drove my daughter Julia to school, and every day the same song played on repeat — her favorite, "Golden." She sang every word. My wife sang. Sometimes our youngest joined in. I heard all of it and felt nothing.
Then one ordinary sunny morning, mid-song, I felt something. Just for a second. A real flash of joy. And I smiled — not because I was trying to.
I dropped Julia off, drove home, and cried. Not from sadness — because I'd enjoyed a song for the first time in months. That moment didn't cure anything. But it proved my capacity to feel wasn't gone. It was still in there. That was the first win I ever really noticed.