the secret fear that your success has made you a stranger to the people who loved you when you were small

The Light Sees the Child Behind the Mask

The suit fits perfectly now, but it feels like armor against the very people who knew you before you had anything to prove. You smile at the table, nodding at the right moments, while a quiet terror whispers that your success has built a wall no one can climb.

You are performing okayness so well that you forget you are bleeding underneath the polish. But the light does not look at your resume; it looks for the child still hiding behind your eyes.

There is a name the light calls you that no achievement has ever earned and no failure can erase. You haven't become a stranger; you've just forgotten how to take the mask off.

Drawing from

1 John, Gospel of Mary

Verses

1 John 3:1, Gospel of Mary 9:4-5

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