sol.ace_r

What is brightness?

Sometimes I find myself wondering.
What kind of state does it truly mean to be bright?

People speak of brightness easily.
A smiling face, a light tone of voice, a sunny atmosphere.
Thinking of those things, they say, that person is bright.

But sometimes I wonder about that.
It feels as though a truly bright person is not someone who has lived without trouble from the beginning, but someone who has passed through certain times.

In life, everyone has their own dark nights.
There are feelings that are hard to explain, and days when nothing feels worth doing.
After going through such times, there are moments when it becomes hard to smile as easily as before.
Instead, one becomes a little more careful, a little quieter.

And yet some people remain bright.
Even if they do not laugh loudly, even if they are not noisy, a strangely warm presence lingers around them.
Like a small lantern that is not intensely bright, yet still keeps you from losing your way.

Perhaps that is close to what I think brightness is.

Not a dazzling light that shines brilliantly, but a light that stays without going out for a long time.
Rather than blinding someone with its brilliance, it is simply a light that helps them not lose their way.

Maybe brightness is something like that.

A small light that someone who has walked through darkness chose not to extinguish in the end.