Resting Without the Mask

The house is quiet now, and the person sleeping beside you feels like a stranger because they are in love with a version of you that does not exist. You are terrified that if the performance stops, the love will end.

But the light does not need your mask to find you in the dark. Thomas says there is light within a person of light, and it lights up the whole world—even the part of you that is exhausted from pretending.

You do not have to bring forth a polished self to be held; you only have to stop hiding the one who is already there. If you do not bring forth what is within you, the silence will grow heavy, but the truth is simpler: you are known by the light even when no human eyes can see you.

The performance was never the point; the resting was.