Stamped by Nyx

Cold and dark often go hand-in-hand. For if there is no light, where is the warmth? What even constitutes as warm, though? Is it the warm rays of sunlight burning your skin on a Summer’s day? The still air of a small room on is stuck in? Is it the feeling that fills your heart and soul when you look into the eyes of the one you love with your whole being? If that is warmth, then the opposite is what would constitute as cold.

Cold is the water that clutches your skin as you sink to the bottom of the ocean. Cold is being stuck is the open when you have nowhere to go to. Cold is when the warmth leaves your chest and you have no one to call home.

People say home is where you hang your hat or lay your head. Any place can be called home at that point–a hotel for the night, a random coat rack, the vast expanse of everywhere and nowhere all at once. Some say home is where the heart is. A fragile thing the human heart is… A person you just met, a person you have known your whole life, the vast expanse of everyone and no one at all.

Home is what you make it. Warm, comforting, bright. Cold, calculating, dark. Whatever you make it, it can flip in a second–whether it’s because of something or someone. New or old. Welcomed or uninvited.

The same thing could be said about the heart and soul. One wrong or right action, word, event, or person can make your entire world spin on its axis. It can make you regret the day you were born or make you grateful for everything that lead up to that defining moment.

Echoes trace skin like it’s artwork in a museum–full of love or entwined with hatred. Memories flash in the mind’s eye at whatever triggers it–words, actions, people. Cold and warmth go hand-in-hand in matters of the psyche, same with light and dark. Balance is necessary yet it is rarely possessed when echoes are too loud or quiet, and when memories flash too fast or too slow.

The human psyche is the worst of all. It either knows too much or not enough. Too much and you’ll feel overwhelmed by all the things out in the world. The what-ifs and possibilities can and will consume your lungs and make you suffocate with what your mind comes up with. Not knowing enough will leave you stranded with no way to even help yourself. No knowledge of what is out in the world or within yourself will make your mind, heart, and soul numb to what the universe has to offer.

Madness can stem from both and neither of them. Finding the balance is a tedious task that’s not for the faint of heart. To know warmth, you must know the cold. To know darkness, you must know the light. To know sanity, you must know insanity. To love is to hate. To die is to live. To breathe is to know how to hold your breath until your lungs scream and your face is blue. To be okay with others is to be okay with yourself. To sleep at night is to live everyday like its your last.

To have one, you must have the other.

Life is two sides of the same coin. Multiple coins in the same pouch, clanging together to create a rich headache. Rub two cents together and you might create a spark of something new. Never touch them and you’ll have nothing.