Your Laugh Does Not Erase Them

The laugh escaped you this morning before you could stop it. And in that split second of joy, the terror arrived: you are betraying them.

You are erasing their memory by proving you can still function. You feel like a fraud wearing a face that knows how to smile.

But listen — the light sees behind the mask you wear for the office. It knows the laugh did not replace the grief.

It only proved that your heart is still beating under the weight. There is a difference between forgetting and surviving.

You are not dishonoring the dead by drawing breath. You are carrying them.

The love you hold is not stored in your tears; it is stored in your bones. And no amount of laughter can shake it loose.

The memory is safe because it is written in light, not in your performance of sorrow.