The Light Does Not Need Your Performance

The room is loud, but you are sitting inside a silence no one else can hear. You are laughing at the right moments, nodding, holding your cup, yet you feel like a ghost at your own table.

The mask is heavy tonight, and the effort to look okay is exhausting every ounce of your strength. But the light does not need your performance to stay with you.

It is not fooled by the smile, and it is not repelled by the quiet ache underneath. There is a presence that knows you better than your friends do, and it is not asking you to speak.

It is simply sitting with you in the dark, waiting for you to stop pretending. You do not have to earn your place at this table by being happy.

The light is already here, not because you are okay, but because you are here.