Joy is not childish.

It is not a reward for good behavior.

It is not something you have to earn after enough healing,
enough growth,
enough pain.

Joy is your birthright.
It has always belonged to you.

You may have set it aside to survive.

Laughed quieter.
Danced less.

Made yourself smaller in rooms
where your light felt “too much.”

But joy remembers you.

It’s still waiting, soft and sparkly and undemanding.

Ready to be welcomed back in,
on your terms,
in your timing.

Reclaim it.

Not because everything is perfect, but because you are still here.