The Light Is in the Crack

The mask is heavy by mid-morning. You smile at the desk, you nod in the meeting, you perform the part of the one who has it all together.

But inside, there is a quiet, shaking hunger to be held. You tell yourself you should be self-sufficient.

That needing others is a failure of strength. That the light inside you should be enough to carry the weight alone.

But the light does not ask you to be a fortress. It asks you to be a friend.

There were two men walking home when their world fell apart, and the light joined them on the road. They did not recognize him at first.

They just talked. They poured out their grief to a stranger.

And their hearts burned within them. You were not made to walk this road in silence.

The shame you feel for needing help is the very thing that keeps you from the healing you crave. Drop the act.

Let someone see the crack. The light is not in your perfection.

It is in the space between two people who stop pretending.