The Light Lives Behind Your Mask

The sun is just beginning to touch the edge of your window, and you are already tired from the night's rehearsal. You have practiced the smile, the nod, the two words that will keep everyone at a safe distance.

'I'm fine.' A lie you tell so well it almost feels like truth. But the light does not need your performance.

It does not require you to be okay before it can be near you. There is a quiet space between the mask you wear and the face beneath it, and the light lives there.

You do not have to bring forth your perfection today. You only have to bring forth what is within you — the tiredness, the fear, the honest ache.

That is what will save you. The dawn is not asking for a show.

It is simply arriving, steady and soft, to remind you that you are already held.