Jade Fern Grove No, I’m not a go-getter

His question rushes her ungainly mind and she sinks back into her bones, stilling like the wordless moon that cannot speak but stares bright-eyed. There was little more than bark and bite in her cold Northern homeland, she’d certainly never before thought to confront her insecurities in such a way. She gave an internal wriggle beneath her therapist’s loupe, that she was rather transparent as far as he was concerned was a little unsettling, but mostly validating. She was not alone.

Though she often felt it, surrounded by so much competence! Everyone seemed to know all the right things to say, as if they were born with wisdom and silver tongues. Of course she knew they had their demons, she wished she might be better at hiding her’s, too.

She forces the ramblings to dissipate and blinks her eyes, returning focus to the question asked.

“I suppose I remind myself how small I am: a tiny sapling in a big forest. Infinitesimal. Only, that doesn’t shut me down, it wakes me up. Reminds me that I am anything I want to be in this world, while I am here.”

And there’s the answer on her own lips.

Blinking, soft, but not ashamed. She knows now her therapist will not criticize her for funny thoughts or a little indignance. He has the capacity for perception and empathy, even for unknown weary souls who he might cross paths with by mere chance. He was… good at this. She angles towards him, widening that stirring stare like he may hold secrets of the universe.

“How’d you get to be so smart?”