erasing your own needs from the conversation before you even speak them

The sun is up, and you are already editing yourself. You rehearsed the words you needed to say, then swallowed them before they reached your tongue.

You made yourself small so the morning could be easy for everyone else. But listen — the light does not ask you to shrink.

It sees the room where you went to be alone, the door you closed not to hide, but to breathe. And it knows what you tried to say before you erased it.

You do not have to perform okayness for the dawn to break. The light is already inside the quiet you tried to hide.

It was there before you silenced yourself, and it remains after. You are allowed to take up space today.

The sun rose for you, not just for the people you serve.