01/07/2026
A Thought Before Dawn (ATBD) 🌙
For the ones who feel invisible when the world goes dark.
To the one who feels like they're disappearing into the silence— 🌌
Between midnight and dawn, there's a strange kind of loneliness that doesn't exist in daylight. The world forgets you exist. Your phone goes quiet. No one is checking in. And in that vast, empty stretch of hours, you might start to feel like you're disappearing altogether—like the version of you that loved them, built with them, dreamed with them, has faded into someone you don't even recognize anymore. You look in the mirror and see tired eyes and a stranger's face. You wonder who you are without their name on your lips, without their hand in yours. 🫥
But listen closely, because this is the part your grief doesn't want you to see: you are not disappearing. You are shedding. Like a snake leaving behind skin that no longer fits, you are shedding the version of you that was defined by their presence. That version was real. It was beautiful. It loved deeply and gave generously. But it was never the whole story—it was just one chapter. And now, in this painful, sacred darkness, a new you is forming. One who knows how to sit alone in a quiet room and not run from her own thoughts. One who can hold her own hand through a panic attack. One who understands that her worth was never borrowed from someone else's affection. This version of you is tougher, wiser, and more self-sufficient than the one who fell in love all those months or years ago. ✨
So let the night hold you. Let the silence wrap around you like a heavy blanket. You're not lost—you're just between chapters. And the pen is still very much in your hand. You get to decide what happens next, even if you're too tired to write tonight. Just rest. Just exist. Just know that this darkness is not a punishment—it's a chrysalis. And when you finally emerge, you won't be the same. You'll be better. Not because the pain was easy, but because you survived it minute by agonizing minute, and that changes a person from the inside out. 🦋
Stay a little longer. The sun always finds its way back. And so will you.
