The number it hides from you

Start a stopwatch on your phone. Right now, before you decide anything. Most people never time a single craving. They only remember them afterward, and memory is a biased witness. It swears every urge was endless and never once checked the clock. This one's going on the record.

Kids count the seconds between lightning and thunder, and the storm shrinks into a number. Do the same here. Glance at three minutes. Glance again at ten. Somewhere in between, the peak rises and passes while you're watching. It has a shape, and the shape has an end. The cigarette kept jumping in right before the finish and claiming the win.

You can't time a storm and drown in it at the same moment. The part of you holding the phone is steady. It's just reading numbers. Give that part the next ten minutes. God can hold the rest. That steady counter is you.

Time a few of these and you'll own something no craving can argue with. Your own numbers, from your own days. Next time one swears it won't end until you smoke, you'll know its real length. The stopwatch will testify. Keep watching. This craving is about to lose to a number.