I was working in a recovery center for addiction several years back, and we had a client return after a year of sobriety.

There’s something unmistakable about the energy of someone who has found their way back. Sobriety carries a particular kind of presence—tender, awake, almost reverent. When someone has come close to losing their life, life itself begins to shimmer again. Ordinary moments stop being so ordinary.

There’s something I didn’t appreciate or truly understand in my 20s that I understand now.

Space.

And I mean that in every sense of the word. Space in my day, space in my brain, my heart, my relationships. Just… space.

I spent most of my twenties trying to assemble a better version of myself. I kept a running inventory of my flaws, a mental record of every awkward comment, every relational misstep, every pattern I wished I could smooth out and improve.