Most of the time, growth is invisible.

Then, one night after a concert, another musician approaches.

Not a fan.

A peer.

Someone who knows what it costs to arrive at a simple melody. Someone who has also spent lonely Tuesdays wondering whether the work is improving or merely accumulating.

“I like where your writing is going.”

The sentence is only seven words.

Yet it outweighs a hundred compliments from strangers.