To feel is not weakness. It is the essence of being human

Emotions.
A topic so many try to avoid. And even more so as a man.

If you are sensitive, you are seen as weak.
But we desperately need to flip the switch on that culture.

In truth, men are deeply sensitive, often more than women in certain ways.
And if you look to the natural world, you will see it.
The queendom, not the kingdom.

In so many species, the female is the hunter.
The protector.
The strategist of survival.
Wolves. Lions. Even spiders.
Ants, wasps, bees, always following their queens.

How can we deny what nature shows us?

And feelings,
they are the only thing that truly separates us from artificial intelligence.
Nothing else.

We like to believe there are only a few emotions,
but in truth, there is a vast spectrum,
an infinite range of what we can feel.

I know we should not act on all of them.
But for me, somewhere along the way, I lost my grip.
I used to be grounded.
I used to hold my thoughts and emotions steady.
But these past few years… I slipped.

Hitting what I thought was rock bottom, again and again,
shook that foundation loose.

Now I am working on it.
Trying to come back to myself.
Trying to live in step with my emotions,
without numbing them.

Because numbing would be the same as killing my humanity.
And how could I continue to experience life without emotions?

I do not want to be a drone.
I feel, because it is who I am.