A week passed. It was not an empty week — there were meetings to attend, budgets to review, a growing stack of grant applications that needed triage before the new director could take over — but it was a week that moved at a different tempo than the ones before it. The urgency that had defined the fund's launch had settled into something steadier, a rhythm of building rather than reacting. Aaron found himself sleeping better, waking more slowly, noticing the light more often.
The weaving hung in his study, a constant presence. He caught himself looking at it at odd moments — while on the phone, while reading a report, while standing with a cup of coffee that had gone cold in his hand. Each time, the same small recalibration. The same quiet reminder of why.
