The Seed Within | Napowrimo2025 | Day 01

I used to think happiness was something you find.
Like a treasure buried deep in the sand,
or a bright light waiting at the end of a long tunnel.
I thought it lived in the things I could touch—
in the things I could buy,
or the people who told me I was enough.
I chased it in the applause,
the compliments,
the next achievement that promised to fill me up.

But no matter how far I ran,
it always felt just out of reach.
Like trying to catch the wind in my hands,
or touch the stars in the sky.
It was there, but never here.
So I kept moving,
always looking for that next moment,
the one that would finally make me feel complete.

And then one night,
I found myself sitting alone in the quiet.
The noise of the day had faded,
and I felt tired,
bone-deep tired.
I looked in the mirror,
and for the first time in a long while,
I stopped.

I asked myself:
What if happiness isn’t something I find,
but something that’s been inside me all along?
What if it’s like a seed,
small and quiet,
waiting to grow?

So I sat with the thought.
I didn’t rush to answer.
I just listened,
to the soft thump of my own heart,
the rhythm of something that was always there,
waiting.
And slowly, it began to make sense.
The seed, buried deep in my chest,
was starting to stir.
It wasn’t loud,
but I could feel it—
like roots reaching into the earth,
finding their way in the dark,
steady,
slow,
but sure.

Happiness isn’t a place I can reach.
It’s not a thing I can buy or earn.
It’s something that’s been growing inside me,
waiting for me to notice,
to nurture it,
to give it the space to bloom.

I stopped looking for it in the distance.
I stopped running.
Instead, I started to come back to myself,
again and again.
In the quiet moments,
in the breaths I used to overlook.
And with each one,
I felt it grow—
a warmth that fills the spaces I once thought were empty.

Now I know:
Happiness isn’t something to chase.
It’s something I carry,
a gift I give myself each day.
It’s in the way I show up for myself,
in the quiet spaces where my heart can finally breathe.