Peace

An illusion as thick as the makeup she puts on every morning.

Our idea of it as shallow as an Instagram feed, filled only with smiles and filters.

Such happy faces, hiding so many tears.

Peace

The absence of fears.

Fears born from the realization that life is a minefield of wrong decisions waiting to teach us the value of repercussions.

Peace

How to define something so complex when its meaning is reshaped by every person who hears it?

Some envision it as collapse of social hierarchy; a coming together of all members of society to end segregation of every kind,

The end to a culture of barricades and warfronts that has torn nations apart.

An end to labels that have oppressed most,

Turned pain into art.

We look outside ourselves so often; surrounded by problems we believe, if solved,

will make us feel less broken.

But what about peace within? Peace inside our minds; our mental health only thought about when the tears become too thick to swallow.

A calm place to plant our thoughts without worrying we’ll be judged,

Without it making us feel hollow?

Sometimes we find it in a house, we can’t quite call home, in a corner with the radio on.

Sometimes in the arms of the ones we love and other times in the fleeting embraces of strangers.

For some it hides between the pages of a book, in the lives of characters so different from themselves yet the only ones who truly understand them.

Peace created by an accumulation of moments that block out the chaos that surrounds us.

A reminder that inside of you is someone worth remembering.

Without rendering your voice to sound a little more like theirs,

or laugh to make the aching go away

or smile that fault line smile that crumbles so easily after every

“I’m just joking”

Sometimes the only peace we find is within our minds