You Can Exhale Now

The afternoon sun cuts across the sheets, bright and demanding, while you lie perfectly still beside the one you love. You hold your breath, terrified that a single shift or a quiet sigh will reveal the hollowness you are hiding behind your closed eyes.

The world outside is moving, loud and certain, but here in this quiet room, you feel like a fraud in your own skin. Yet the light does not need you to perform wellness or to stay frozen in fear.

It sees the exhaustion beneath the stillness. It knows the weight you are carrying while pretending to rest.

You do not have to maintain the mask for the light to remain. The performance is for the world, but the peace is for you.

The light is not waiting for you to be impressive; it is simply waiting for you to be real. You can exhale now.

The hollowness is not the end of the story; it is just the space where the light is about to begin.