It did not arrive with thunder
or light bursting through a window.
It came quietly,
like dust settling
after years of motion.

There was no comfort in it-
only stillness.
The kind that follows
after all the noise has fled.

I saw myself,
not as I hoped to be,
but as I was.
Unhidden.
Unadorned.

And in that moment,
the world stopped pretending.
So did I.