Under the bright afternoon sun, sat a table overflowing with conversation. Laughter echoed between familiar faces. Stories overlapped. Opinions found one another. Friends, acquaintances, strangers, everyone seemed to have something to say.
I listened.
I answered the questions that came my way. I smiled when expected. I nodded in agreement. I leaned into conversations that seemed to flow effortlessly around me. And then, somewhere between the noise and the silence, a thought arrived -
Would anyone notice if I quietly left the table?
Not out of anger. Not out of sadness. Simply to find a place where I didn't have to compete to be heard. A place where my presence wasn't something that had to be announced.
A place where I could exist without performing a version of myself that fit the room. A place that felt like home.
Perhaps that is what so many of us are searching for. Not another invitation. Not another seat at someone else's table. But the quiet certainty that we belong where we are.
Perhaps every canary is searching for the same thing. A place where it's song doesn't need to be louder - Only heard.