You Came From The Blaze Not Grief

The screen glows in the dark room, and you hear it—that laughter from years ago, easy and unforced, rolling out of you like water. Then the video ends.

The silence rushes back in. You try to make the sound again, just to prove you still can, but it comes out thin, manufactured, a performance for an audience of one.

You have forgotten how to be the person who laughed without thinking about it. But listen closely.

The light that made that sound possible did not leave when the joy faded. It went underground.

There is light within a person of light, and it lights up the whole world. If it does not shine right now, it is not because the source is gone.

It is because you are looking for the echo instead of the voice. You came from the light, the place where the light came into being on its own accord.

You did not come from the grief. You came from the blaze.

The laughter you miss was just the light recognizing itself in a moment of safety. It is still there.

Waiting for you to stop forcing the sound and start remembering the source.