HUMANS!

Why do you turn against yourselves?

You feel sad, hurt, lost, afraid, far from love.
You feel unworthy, unnoticed, unacknowledged.
You feel angry sometimes. Frustrated sometimes.

But you cover it all up!
You put on a mask.
You pretend to be okay.
You are brilliant at pretending.

You play nice guy. Happy girl.
The one who knows.
The strong one. The confident one.
The blissed-out spiritual one.
The one who doesn’t feel.

Why split yourself in two?
Why submerge half of yourself in darkness?
Why hold up an image of yourself?

To win love?
To be liked?
To protect yourself from the pain of rejection?
To control others’ opinions of you?

Why do you care so much about being liked?
What does it matter, if the entire world rejects you,
yet you know you are real?
Why do you exhaust yourself, living a lie?

When did love become something you had to earn?

The mask stripped away, the pretence finally at a end;
oh, humans, do you not see,
you are loved exactly as you are?

– Jeff Foster