Copyright © 2026 12Gauge858 Music. All Rights Reserved. Trae Woods Journal Passage 1: Blown Away Written by: 12Gauge858 Music ⸻ Some people walk into your life with loud entrances. She didn’t. Nothing about that day asked to be remembered. That’s probably why it stayed with me. I wish I could tell you it was her smile… or the way she laughed… or even the words she said. But that wouldn’t be honest. The first thing I noticed… was me. Why did my morning feel lighter? Why did the drive home seem shorter? Why did I replay a conversation that would’ve been ordinary any other day? I kept waiting for the feeling to leave. It didn’t. Instead… it quietly unpacked its bags. Since then, I’ve caught myself doing little things I can’t explain. Reading the same message twice. Smiling before pressing play on a voice note. Looking out the window longer than I used to. Not because I’m waiting for her… Because I’m trying to understand the version of myself that shows up whenever she enters my thoughts. I caught myself laughing today. Not because something was funny. Because I remembered the way your voice sounded when you couldn’t decide whether to laugh or finish your sentence. It wasn’t even the whole conversation. Just one little moment. Funny how the smallest things stay the longest. I’ve been trying to understand that. Why our minds choose certain memories over others. Out of every word we exchanged… why did that one stay? I walked past a coffee shop this morning. Someone inside laughed. For a second… I looked up. Not because I thought it was you. Because my mind wanted to see if it could feel that same peace again. That’s new. I never paid attention to moments like that before. Now I notice them everywhere. The way people soften when they hear someone they care about. The way strangers smile at messages on their phones without realizing anyone is watching. The way a person stares out a window after a phone call… almost like they’re trying to hold onto a feeling before the world asks them to move on. Today I almost missed something. The woman at the grocery store reached for a carton of eggs. The older gentleman beside her smiled and stepped back, letting her go first. She thanked him. He tipped his hat. Neither of them knew… they had just reminded me that kindness is usually too quiet to make the news. I stood there longer than I needed to. Not because of them. Because something inside me whispered… “You’ve started seeing things differently.” I think that’s what has surprised me the most. Ever since you walked into my life… it isn’t just you I’ve been noticing. It’s everyone. The father carrying his sleeping daughter to the car. The teenager opening a door for someone without looking for credit. The couple sitting across from each other in a restaurant… hardly saying a word… yet somehow saying everything. I used to think moments like these were rare. Now I wonder if they’ve always been here… waiting for someone willing to slow down. Maybe that’s the part I couldn’t explain. I thought you changed my heart. Maybe… you changed my eyes. Because the world doesn’t seem louder now. It seems gentler. And somehow… that feels even more unbelievable. Maybe that’s what has me so… blown away. Not that you changed my world overnight. But somehow… without trying… you changed the way I move through it. I still don’t know why one person can quietly awaken something in another. Maybe someday I’ll understand. Maybe I won’t. Either way… I’m grateful I noticed. As I was getting ready to close the journal… one thought refused to leave. I don’t think life was ever meant to be solved overnight. Maybe that’s why patience feels so valuable. It gives us the opportunity to sit with the unknown long enough… for understanding to find us when we’re finally ready to receive it. Maybe that’s why I’ve stopped trying to rush every answer. Maybe some truths aren’t discovered because we searched harder… Maybe they’re revealed because we stayed long enough to notice them. So tonight… I didn’t close the journal because I had everything figured out. I closed it because I trusted that tomorrow might teach me something today couldn’t. I’ll keep watching. — Trae © 2026 12Gauge858 Music. All Rights Reserved. No portion of this literary work may be reproduced, distributed, performed, published, or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written permission from the copyright owner, except as permitted by applicable copyright law.
