The Mask You Were Never Meant to Wear

Someone finally asks how you are, and the word 'fine' rises up before you can stop it. You smile.

You perform the okayness they expect to see. But behind that mask, there is a silence so loud it feels like screaming.

You are holding a world of hurt in your throat because you are afraid the truth will be too heavy for them to carry. Yet the light that lives inside you does not need your performance to see what is real.

It sees the cracks in the porcelain. It sees the exhaustion behind the eyes.

There is a name written on a white stone that only you and God know — a name that is not 'fine,' not 'strong,' not 'holding it together.' You do not have to keep the door locked when the One who loves you is already standing there, waiting not for your success, but for your honesty. The mask is heavy, but you were never meant to wear it forever.