‘Victories‘ resonated with me as it had with my wife because it spoke to my daily experience of life: the tasks that occupy me from the moment I wake, the effort I spend getting them done and how I’ve come to measure my life not by its major milestones but by the small pebbles of achievement that I fill my pockets with each day.

This poem made me feel seen. It showed me that I’m not the only one who gets through each day as best I can. It offered me not consolation or sympathy or judgement but rather acceptance laced with a little bit of hope.

Here’s the poem. Perhaps it will resonate with you too,

Victories by Joshua Seigal

So you got up and fed the cat. That’s something
You hauled one leg, then the other, out of your
pyjama bottoms, and you fought doggedly across

the rugged terrain of the landing. You wielded
your toothbrush like a club. You stood under 
the shower’s strafe for as long as it took

to deter the enemies under your skin, if just
for a while. You got yourself dressed: trousers,
T-shirt, socks – the kit. You sat for a bit then went

to the shops for milk and fruit, whatever your tired
gut could take. You wrote. That’s something.
Even read a bit too. You talked with your wife –

only half hearing through the hounding static,
but you talked nonetheless. You watched
some show about the Vikings. That’s something.

That’s something. And when the day was done
you dropped heavily into bed, your mind bulging
with a thousand tiny battles, a thousand ini victories.