The echoes inside me

Darling, it isn't the laughter that unsettles me, nor the joy, warmth, the tender ache of love, not even the way a smile can soften the world. Those things are harmless— beautiful, even. What truly terrifies me is the silence that follows, the moment when the light fades and I'm left alone with the echoes of my own thoughts. Its the fear that beneath every gentle touch, beneath every promise whispered in fragile breath, lies a crack big enough for me to fall through again. What I am scared about is losing myself—of drifting back into the cold, into the vast, unmarked territory of who I used to be before I learned how to feel again. So darling, It's not love I fear, but the unraveling of my edges, that slow vanishing voice of mine, the quiet surrender of my spirit to the same uncertainty that once swallowed me whole. -Paul M.