JANE PRIVÉE chapter three It never arrives as I anticipate it will. It comes up slowly, then swallows me all at once — It’s been this way for as long as I can remember. Both a blessing and a curse to be connected to your own heart with a profound depth. To hold a certain attentive love while simultaneously holding a quiet strength to dig deep into your own heart at any given moment. To be consumed by a mind of thoughts and secrecy. To grasp the beauty of it all in your hands and count ten, twenty, thirty thousand reasons to live this life and touch each moment with more pleasure than the last. Do you seize the fire in your heart or throw yourself in it? Is there a place for anyone who does not rival death with a certain fierceness? It took me some time to find my way, but here I am; alive, here, breathing. Alive. Inhale, hold for six, exhale, hold for six. Throw yourself into the flames, move your gentle body toward the ocean. The more I open myself, the more I push myself beyond dissolvable boundaries. The more life seeps through the cracks and I am carried away; emerging, disappearing, emerging further. Permanence echoes and repeats itself. Do not let the poison in, do not let this world turn your heart to stone. Keep the flame alight. The world will put its mouth on you, and you will kiss it back through love and through death. Editorial — KEEP THE FLAME unfold in the silence. @jane.bythegreyattic