Blog #749: The Email Said She’s a Ghost

I read her email.
I stopped breathing for a moment.

“People don’t say things like that.”

______

The email read:

“I’m a ghost. People don’t see me. I don’t even see myself anymore. I read your blog and maybe I’m not changing, but at least I see I don’t want to be a ghost.”

______

We think a “ghost” is someone who disappears.

But that’s not it.
Not really.

People don’t vanish from their lives.

They stay in them.
They just stop checking if they’re still in them.

______

Life keeps moving.

So they keep moving with it.

Same routines.
Same reactions.
Same quiet resignation.

Until one day…

They realize nothing is being chosen anymore.

Just repeated.

______

It’s not total absence.

It’s participation without presence.

You stop asking what you want.
You start following what’s easiest.

You stop noticing how you feel.
You start managing how you function.

You stop responding to your own signals.

And eventually…

You disappear from yourself.

______

What do I know about being a ghost?

Plenty.

I’ve disappeared.

When I lost an election.
When I closed a business.
When health issues floored me.

I know what it is to look into a mirror and see me.

Faded.

______

Here’s what stood out to me in her email.

Not the sentence “I’m a ghost.”

But this line:

“I don’t want to be a ghost.”

Because in that simple line…

She begins to reappear.

S.

(Audio version)