Restless by Design

Chapter 13: What Softness Looked Like the Second Time Around


Listen Later

Some parts of you don’t disappear.

They wait.

Quietly.

Not fully expressed.Not entirely gone.

Just… set aside.

Sometimes because of timing.Sometimes because of environment.Sometimes because there wasn’t space for them yet.

For a long time, that goes unquestioned.

You become who you need to be.

You adapt.You build a life that works.

And it does work.

But somewhere along the way… something softer gets left behind.

Not intentionally.

Just… not fully realized.

Think about color. Not a dramatic decision to leave it behind. Just a slow drift toward neutral. Practical. Easy. Considered. And then something happens — a person, a moment, a Tuesday afternoon — and suddenly the world is saturated again. It was never gone. It just didn’t have anywhere to land.

Life fills in quickly.

Responsibility.Growth.Direction.

There’s always something to step into.

Until something small brings it back.

Not dramatically.

A moment.A preference.A quiet pull that feels unexpectedly familiar.

And it becomes clear…

it never actually left.

It just didn’t have a place to exist before.

There’s a lightness to it.

Something less defined.Less structured.

Almost… playful.

It doesn’t always align with the version of yourself you’ve built.

But it doesn’t need to.

Not everything that belongs to you needs to fit into who you’ve become.

Some things exist alongside it.

Unexplained.

Unstructured.

Allowed.

And that can hold more than one feeling at once.

There’s grief in it.

For what wasn’t fully lived.For what didn’t have space.

But there’s also something else.

A quieter kind of joy.

Because it’s here now.

And it can be experienced differently.

Without the same limitations.Without the same expectations.

Not something to define.

Just something to let exist.

In small ways.

In moments that feel more like you.

Because not everything needs to be integrated to be real.

Some things just need space.

And finally…

there is space.

And something in you knows what to do with it.



This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit anniealdendesign.substack.com
...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

Restless by DesignBy Annie Heise Alden