the specific memory of your child hugging you goodnight while you held your breath to hide the smell on yours

The Light Held Its Breath With You

The house is quiet now, but that moment is loud inside you. You held your breath while your child hugged you goodnight, terrified they would smell the night on your skin.

You thought you were protecting them from the truth. But the light was already in that room, holding its breath with you.

It did not recoil. It did not step back to find cleaner air.

It leaned into the hug exactly as you were. The darkness you tried to hide is not stronger than the love that held you both.

You are not the smell of your failure. You are the light that survived it.

Drawing from

Gospel of Thomas, Luke

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