Held Through Both Tears and Laughter

The laugh is still hanging in the air when you catch your reflection in the dark window. For a split second, the face looking back is the one that was sobbing an hour ago.

Two people in one skin. The joy feels like a mask.

The grief feels like the truth. But the light does not demand you choose between them.

It sees the tears before the smile ever formed. It saw you on the floor.

It sees you standing now. You are not a contradiction to be solved.

You are a person being held through both. The darkness outside the glass cannot extinguish what burns inside it.

The ghost you see is not a stranger. It is the part of you that is still waking up.

Let the reflection be whole. Let the laugh and the tear exist in the same breath.

The light is not afraid of your complexity. It is resting in it.