You Do Not Have to Perform to Be Loved

The phone buzzes on the nightstand, and for a split second, your whole body tenses against the sound. You calculate the energy it would take to pick up, to smile, to say the words 'I'm fine' when you are anything but.

The light does not demand that performance from you tonight. It knows the weight of the mask you wear for the world, and it asks only for your exhaustion, not your acting.

You do not have to answer the call to be held. You do not have to pretend to be okay to be loved.

The kingdom is not a place you perform your way into; it is already inside you, waiting in the silence you are too afraid to keep. Let the phone buzz.

Let the room stay dark. The light is not in the noise you make for others; it is in the quiet truth you are hiding from them.

Rest now, not because you have earned it, but because you are finally home.