The CreativeLine with Safaa Asif

My legs dragged over the cracked, tired concrete as my thoughts threatened to drown me. The red-bricked houses lined up, uniformly, block by block, neighborhood to neighborhood leading me confidently to my destination, my home. The sun’s scorching heat beat down, feeding life to the green leaves in the towering trees. The ground smoldered, and even the birds went mute as if in a disorienting h...

1….2 ...3 Assemblee ...3 ...4...5 Plie ...6...7… Pirouette. Don't fall. Bend your knees… Breath… 2… 3.  My breathing relaxes as the music fills the air around me without effort. I embrace the acoustic tune, as it takes control, imprisoning my anxiety, my pain, gifting me with a purposeful clarity. My mind is blank. Silent, and I find myself in a different world. One riddled with the ...

They say that once you’ve mastered being alone you are ready for the company of others, but that doesn't make it easy. There are some things we must learn the hard way. For ten years, I've craved a sense of belonging. Yearning for a family. Perhaps there was a mercy in the unknown. If I could remember the warm hugs, being cocooned in my parent’s arms the minute my lower lip trembled, the stin...