A Yellow Soul's Journey

The soul arrives bright and is asked, immediately, to be less. Lives where delight was a liability — too loud, too much, not serious. It learns to bank its own light before anyone else puts it out.

Something returns — not the old brightness, something lower and warmer. Lives of storytelling, music, cooking for crowds, making a room easier to be in. The soul learns joy is a service, and that it works best on people who have also been cold.

Yellow deepens into gold: joy that no longer needs an audience to exist. The soul becomes warmth other people can plan around. It stops being the brightest thing in the room and becomes the steadiest. The light finally has something under it.