The slow dawn

It started with a whisper, a quiet shift in the air that I barely noticed at first. I was so used to the dim light of my own solitude that I didn't recognize the horizon changing colors. You didn't crash into my life like a storm; you rose like a patient sun, inch by inch, warming the parts of me that had been frozen for years. Now, when I look at you, I see the source of every good thing I feel. The shadows that used to define my days have retreated to the corners because your light is too steady to let them stay. I am breathing differently now, deeper and easier, because you showed me that the world doesn't have to be cold. You are my morning, my constant, and my very first ray of hope.