When I Am Too Happy, I Close My Eyes

You would not know this—
when I am too happy, I close my eyes.
It is because I long, with all my heart,
for this happiness not to slip away.

When I love too deeply, I fall silent.
For once I speak those words aloud,
I can never call them again
with quite the same feeling.
           — From I Love, Yet Do Not Love by Jin-guk Cho —

At times, a profound sense of happiness comes over us.
We find ourselves thinking, So this is what happiness feels like,
and at the same time, we wonder,
Am I truly allowed to feel this happy?

In such moments, we instinctively close our eyes—
as if to hold that happiness close within our hearts.
For true happiness is not something to be spoken,
but something to be quietly embraced.

When one comes to truly love another,
the words “I love you” are not easily spoken.
Instead, one simply gazes in silence.
It is because we wish to cherish that love
deep within our hearts.

True love is not found in words,
but in the trembling that passes from one heart to another.

Just as the depths of the ocean grow ever more still,
so too do our emotions become quieter as they deepen.
To protect and to cherish something dearly
is, at times, to endure a certain pain.

Yet that pain is proof that love is alive.
There are moments when it aches beyond endurance—
but even then, it is a beautiful ache,
the ache of happiness, the ache of love.
              — From Dawn Light Notes by Ki Jun Kwon —

Today’s Reflection

★ The deeper the happiness and the deeper the love,
the quieter—and the more tenderly painful—they become.
Let us recall the happiness that closes our eyes
and the love that makes our hearts tremble. ★

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