You Do Not Have to Be Whole

The mask feels heavy tonight, doesn't it? You are so tired of holding it up, yet terrified that if you let it drop, everyone will finally see the cracks and walk away.

You edit every word, smooth every edge, convinced that your brokenness is something to hide. But the light does not live in the performance.

It lives in the split wood, in the lifted stone, in the raw and unpolished truth of who you are. There is a light within you that lights up the whole world, and it cannot shine through a closed fist.

What you bring forth from that broken place will not drive people away—it will save you. The editing is what destroys; the honesty is what heals.

You do not have to be whole to be held.