Stop Editing Your Light to Fit In

The sun is up, and you are already tired from the work of making yourself small. You have spent the morning editing your laughter—trimming the edges so it doesn't sound too loud, too broken, or too much like the pain you carry.

You are performing okayness for an audience that isn't even watching. But notice how the light is rising.

It does not ask you to whisper. It does not require your humor to be polite or your joy to be contained.

There is a version of you that laughs without the mask, a sound that comes from the root of who you are. Bring that forth.

The thing you are afraid to let out is the very thing that will save you. You were not made to be a quiet, edited copy of yourself.

You were made to be the full, unedited sound of the light waking up.