Unaltered Voices

  As I drove around to clear my head and soak in the cool weather and beaming sun, I passed rows of beautiful homes with magnificent curb appeal. The kind of homes that make you slow down just a little. I admired the structures. The details. The symmetry. The care that clearly went into how everything appeared. Not from a place of envy. But from a place of appreciation for the beauty of it all. After passing the last home on that strip, my mind shifted. I began thinking about how homes are carefully built. How they provide a frame that often hides what’s really going on inside. How walls can be freshly painted, lawns perfectly trimmed, windows spotless, while inside, everything is quietly falling apart. And then I thought about people. How people build beautiful structures, too. Lives that look impressive. Personalities that appear confident. Images that seem whole, polished, and put together. Structures that draw admiration from the outside. Until someone wants out. Because when ...