The Light Waits Beneath The Silence

You wake at 2am and the silence feels absolute, as if the memory of your own joy has evaporated into the dark. It is a specific terror — to realize you cannot recall the sound of your own laughter, only the weight of the days that stole it.

But the light was there before the silence began, and it remains even when the music stops. You do not need to manufacture the sound again tonight.

You only need to remember that the capacity for joy was not lost, only buried under the noise. There is light within you, and it waits to illuminate the whole room again.

The laughter will return, not because you forced it, but because you are finally still enough to hear it rising from within.