august twelfth

Not long ago, I had a dream in which I was protecting someone. While they trembled under the blanket, I bought the things they needed and fought off the children who were bothering them. That someone was a person I knew, but in the dream, they seemed somehow younger than me, while at the same time seeming older than me.

When I woke up, I thought that the strength to protect someone might not come from being strong. Perhaps what is needed is not strength, but a hand that can gently comfort you, or a shoulder that you can lean on. Even if that hand or shoulder is small. For someone who truly needed it, it could feel firmer and bigger than anything else.