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Contributing Writer Nocturnal Thought & Unguarded Honesty

Farida Boussouf

Farida Boussouf is a writer whose best thinking happens between two and four in the morning. She has contributed to Light & Composition since 2019, bringing a rare willingness to write what people actually feel rather than what they intend to feel. Her pieces have the quality of thoughts written before sleep could soften them — honest, sometimes unsettling, always true. Readers describe them as the Reflections they return to at the hours she wrote them.

143 Published Reflections

Reflections by Farida Boussouf

Showing 12 of 143 essays
The Weight of Unspoken Lines Photo of the Day
July 29, 2020

The Weight of Unspoken Lines

It is 3:14 am. The house is holding its breath, and I am staring at the dust motes dancing in the sliver of moonlight that cuts across my desk. We spend our lives building structures out of expectations, stacking them like heavy books we never intend to read. We are told that if we follow […]
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The Weight of Sustenance Photo of the Day
July 27, 2020

The Weight of Sustenance

It is 3:14 am. The house is quiet, but my stomach is restless, a hollow reminder that we are biological machines fueled by things that die so we might continue. We spend our days pretending that eating is a social grace, a polite ritual performed in bright rooms with clean napkins. But in the dark, […]
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The Weight of What Remains Photo of the Day
July 18, 2020

The Weight of What Remains

It is 3:14 am. The house is holding its breath, and for once, I am not trying to fill the silence with noise. There is a specific kind of ache that comes from waiting for things to reveal themselves. We spend our lives standing before walls of grey, convinced that if we just stare long […]
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The Weight of Small Things Photo of the Day
July 10, 2020

The Weight of Small Things

It is 3:14 am. The house has stopped settling, and the silence is heavy enough to touch. In the dark, the scale of things shifts. A child’s toy left on the floor feels like a monument to a life not yet burdened by the sun. We spend our days trying to grow, trying to fill […]
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The Weight of Stone Photo of the Day
June 24, 2020

The Weight of Stone

It is 3:15 am, and the house is holding its breath. In the dark, the walls feel thicker, more permanent. We spend our days trying to build things that last, stacking our intentions like bricks, hoping they will hold against the wind. But stone is a patient witness. It remembers the hands that placed it […]
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The Weight of Stone Photo of the Day
June 16, 2020

The Weight of Stone

It is 3:15 am. The house is quiet enough to hear the floorboards settling, a slow, rhythmic groaning that sounds like a secret being kept. I am thinking about the things we build to outlast us. We pile stone upon stone, reaching for a sky that does not care if we are standing or fallen. […]
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The Weight of What Remains Photo of the Day
June 12, 2020

The Weight of What Remains

It is 3:14 am. The house has finally stopped settling, and the silence is heavy enough to touch. This is when the day’s armor falls away, leaving only the things we were too busy to notice under the sun. We spend our lives chasing the light, convinced that if we can just hold onto the […]
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The Hunger That Remains Photo of the Day
May 12, 2020

The Hunger That Remains

It is 3:14 am. The house is quiet, but my mind is loud with the things we consume just to feel full. We spend our days chasing small, immediate satisfactions—the quick bite, the fleeting distraction, the temporary fix for a hollow space that never quite closes. We think if we keep moving, if we keep […]
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The Weight of the Soil Photo of the Day
May 3, 2020

The Weight of the Soil

It is 3:14 am. The house is holding its breath, and I am staring at the wall, wondering how much of a life can be measured by the lines on a face. We spend our days trying to smooth things over, to hide the wear, to pretend that time hasn’t been carving us into something […]
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The Weight of the Horizon Photo of the Day
April 27, 2020

The Weight of the Horizon

It is 3:15 am. The house is holding its breath, and I am staring at the wall, wondering why we insist on dragging our heavy machinery into places that were meant to be silent. We build things to conquer, to mark, to claim. We move through the world like we are trying to leave a […]
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The Ghost in the Current Photo of the Day
April 26, 2020

The Ghost in the Current

It is 3:14 am. The house is holding its breath, and I am staring at the wall, wondering why we are so terrified of standing still. We spend our lives running, convinced that if we stop, the world will simply move on without us. We blur our own edges to match the speed of the […]
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The Weight of the String Photo of the Day
April 19, 2020

The Weight of the String

It is 3:14 am, and the silence in this room is heavy enough to touch. I am thinking about the things we hold onto long after they have stopped being useful. We keep the string taut, fingers white with the effort, convinced that if we let go, we will lose the only thing tethering us […]
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