[ Perhaps it was suffering, but she'd had untold years of darkness, where such lightheartedness was unheard of. Much like learning a new language, navigating the concepts of playfulness was something so long lost that it was new.

Better for it to be natural than forced, which was often the difficulty she faced. Still, it wasn't so bad, if she... maintained the purpose to remain lighter and not get lost in those deeper tracks of thought. ]

You could. Although it is likely that would not have the same amount of impact outside of the circumstances in which they were first told.