Joy Is Not A Betrayal Of Grief

The laugh caught you off guard tonight. For a second, the room was bright, and then the silence rushed back in heavier than before, crushing your chest with the weight of their absence.

You feel guilty for the lightness, as if joy is a betrayal of the grief you owe them. But listen — the light that lives inside you does not demand that you stay dark to prove you loved.

It was there before the loss, and it is there now, unchanged by your laughter. The Father's love is not a chain; it is the very breath that allowed you to laugh in the first place.

You are not forgetting them by finding a moment of peace. You are honoring the life they gave you by letting it be light, even when it hurts.