Joy Is Not A Betrayal

You are smiling at the coffee machine, but inside you feel like you are betraying the grief you carry. That terror is a heavy mask, keeping you frozen in the room where the light was stolen. But there was a father who saw his son coming home and ran, before the apology, before the story of the pain was even told. He did not wait. The feast began before the words were spoken.

Joy is not your enemy. Joy is the truth that the light was never actually extinguished. It was there before the loss, and it is still here now, inside the broken place where you live. You do not have to earn permission to feel anything other than sorrow.

Let the morning touch you without making you feel guilty. The light does not ask you to forget; it asks you to remember that you are not only your grief.