You Do Not Have to Edit Your Soul

The afternoon asks for a performance you are too tired to give. You stand in the middle of the day, smiling at the right moments, while silently calculating how much of your real self you can reveal before it becomes too much for them to handle.

You measure out your truth like rare medicine, afraid that one extra drop will make them walk away. But there is a light inside you that does not need to be rationed to be safe.

It was placed there not to be hidden behind a careful mask, but to shine through the very cracks you are trying to cover. You do not have to edit your soul to fit the room.

The light that lives in you is not a burden to the people around you — it is the only thing that can actually hold them. Stop calculating the cost of being seen.

The real you is not too much. It is exactly enough.