the terror that if you stop performing the version of yourself they love, they will finally see the emptiness and leave

The Light Shines Through Your Cracks

The afternoon sun is bright, and the mask feels heavy on your face. You keep performing the version of yourself they love, terrified that if you stop, they will see the emptiness underneath and walk away.

But the light does not need your performance to stay. It lives in the quiet, unobserved spaces where you are too tired to pretend.

There is a friend who knows the real you—the one behind the smile—and that friend is not leaving. You do not have to earn the right to be held by simply existing.

The terror says: if they see the cracks, they will leave. The truth says: the light is already shining through them.

Drawing from

Gospel of Thomas, John

Verses

John 15:4

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