Enchanted Pause

Before the Universe Answered Long before equations learned to speak, before telescopes stretched human sight, before minds dared to ask why, there was only a hum. Not sound. Not vibration. A presence—subtle, patient, older than the first star. He felt it for the first time in the quiet between breaths, as though the universe itself had leaned closer, curious. Every model he trusted, every law he revered, wavered—not with error, but with invitation. Because the first question was never What created everything? The first question was: What noticed us asking? And once that awareness is glimpsed— even for an instant— nothing in the cosmos remains silent again. The universe stops being a backdrop. It becomes a witness. A participant. A mind on the other side of the question. And the deepest fear is not that we are alone. The deepest fear is that we are not— and that the answer has already begun.