The empty room

When everything is packed — when the walls are white again, when the echo returns to the hallways — light the candle in the middle of the living room.

Sit on the floor. Not on a box. On the floor you have walked a thousand times.

You do not need to give thanks. You do not need to compose a beautiful sentence. Breathe in and out for as long as it takes the scent to fill the whole empty volume — sometimes twenty seconds, sometimes half a minute. That is all.

Then blow the flame out yourself. Not it. You are the one who closes. The candle only helps.