A tongue shapes worlds—
Letters turned to edges,
Some cut deeper than they should.
The Word That Shouldn’t Exist
The city moved like clockwork, but the kind that had been wound too tightly—fast, mechanical, slightly off-balance. He walked through the crowd, past blinking billboards, past a street musician strumming a song no one listened to, past a row of parked taxis with drivers lost in their own worlds.
Words filled the air like static. Conversations half-heard, arguments whispered through clenched teeth, advertisements screaming from screens. Words promising love, demanding attention, selling things no one needed.
But it wasn’t those words that stuck with him.
It was the one that had been following him for years. A single word, small, ordinary, but heavy in a way that made his chest tighten every time he heard it.
“Should.”
The Poison of “Should”
He should be further along in life.
He should be making more money.
He should be happier.
It was never spoken outright, but it was always there, woven into expectations, stitched into casual conversations, buried in the way people talked about themselves.
“Should” was a thief. A quiet one. It didn’t take things all at once—it chipped away, slowly, relentlessly, until there was nothing left but a version of yourself shaped by everyone else’s expectations.
- You should be married by now.
- You should have it all figured out.
- You should act your age.
But “should” never asked what you wanted.
“Should” never cared if you were happy.
“Should” only knew how to measure you against things that were never yours to begin with.
Wabi-Sabi and the Freedom from “Should”
Wabi-sabi teaches that things are beautiful not because they are perfect, but because they are.
A chipped cup still holds tea.
A broken clock still marks time, just in its own way.
A person who has not followed the script is still a person—whole, enough, worthy.
What if life was not about where you “should” be, but about where you actually are?
What if the goal was not to meet expectations, but to shed them?
What if the absence of “should” was the beginning of something lighter, freer, real?
Lessons from a City That Never Stops Moving
- You do not have to be who they expect you to be.
- There is no timeline except the one you choose.
- The only way to be free is to let go of the weight of “should.”
- You are not behind. You are exactly where you are meant to be.
- Replace “should” with “could”—and see how much lighter life feels.
The Streetlight, the Crosswalk, the Step Forward
The signal turned green.
He looked up, took a breath, let the word settle in his mind one last time.
Then, as the crowd surged forward, as the city pulsed around him—
He let it go.
life 
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