Sometimes the light just stays

The day is ending, and with it comes the inventory of all the things your pain has stolen from you. The plans you couldn't keep.

The moments you had to miss. The version of yourself you thought you would be by now.

It is heavy to sit with what is gone when the body refuses to let you move forward. But listen — there was a woman who had been bleeding for twelve years, who lost her health, her money, and her place in the community, yet she reached out from the crowd and touched the edge of a cloak.

She did not get her years back. She did not get her money back.

But in that single moment, the life that had been draining out of her stopped. The light does not always return what was taken.

Sometimes, it simply stops the bleeding. Sometimes, it just stays.