Your Laughter Is Not A Betrayal

The laugh escaped before you could stop it. A reflex.

A moment of ease in a world that is breaking. And now the shame sits heavy in your chest, whispering that you are a fraud, that your joy is a betrayal of the one who is suffering.

You feel like you have chosen the easy road while they walk through fire. But the light does not demand that you carry the weight of the whole world in your face.

There was a man born blind, and the people around him asked whose sin had caused it. Jesus said: neither this man nor his parents sinned.

Your laughter is not the cause of their pain. Your smile is not a stone thrown at their darkness.

You are allowed to breathe. You are allowed to find a moment of rest without condemning yourself for it.

The light sees your grief for them, and it sees your humanity too. It knows you are not two people — the one who cares and the one who laughs.

You are one. And in that wholeness, you can love them better than if you were crushed.