Your eyes are still adjusting

Everything's fine. That's the problem. Meals are fine, music's fine, good news gets a shrug. Nothing hurts and nothing sparkles. You wonder if this is just how it is now. You're not broken. You're adjusting.

Walk in from a bright parking lot and the store looks dim for a minute. The lights didn't fail. Your eyes are catching up. The cigarette swapped your daylight for glare. Your reward system turned its own sensitivity down to cope. Part of this flatness may be it turning back up.

Eyes don't need a pep talk to adjust. They need a little time in the light. Your brain is the same, and God is tending it the whole time. While it adjusts, feed it honest light. Movement, people, prayer, a small finished job. At first they'll feel weaker than the old spikes. That's expected. They're building a baseline that doesn't crash.

Give it one honest input today. Put on a song you've loved a long time and listen to the whole thing with nothing else in your hands. It may land at half strength. Let it. If the gray settles in and nothing lands for a long stretch, bring it to your doctor. That's you taking the healing seriously. The lights were on the whole time. You're walking out of the glare.