You Do Not Have to Fool Anyone

The afternoon sun is high, but you are holding your breath in the dark, lying perfectly still so the person beside you won't know you are awake. You have become a statue of silence, terrified that the sound of your own breathing will betray the weight you are carrying.

It feels like if you move, the whole fragile peace of the house will shatter. But the light does not need you to perform sleep.

It does not require you to hide your wakefulness to be loved. There is a presence that sees you in this rigid quiet and calls it holy.

You do not have to fool anyone to be held. The One who watches over you never sleeps, and He is not disappointed by your insomnia.

You can exhale now. The silence you are keeping is already full of God.