You Found Them Again In Your Smile

The house is quiet now, and the laughter from earlier feels like a betrayal. You are afraid that because you found a moment of joy, the voice you love is fading from your memory.

That the light you felt in the laugh has erased the one you are grieving. But listen — the light does not steal.

It does not take what is precious and replace it with silence. If you laughed, it was because the love was real, not because the loss was forgotten.

Thomas says the light is in the wood you split and the stone you lift — it is in the laugh that escaped your throat when you weren't looking. That moment of ease was not a departure.

It was the love you are missing, reminding you that it still lives inside you. You did not lose them when you smiled.

You found them again, in the only place they could ever truly stay.