The ugly and the beautiful.

There is a place of ugly. It comes and steals our joy. It taints our reality until we see ourselves in a different light. We look at our friends faces and see lies reflected. Lies that they don't want us, don't like us. So we hide. But they aren't seeing us. They are seeing this ugliness. A place that stems from hurt. A hurt that when we hide it, it mutates into a mask of seething, and words of hatred. We hate the ugly and what it did to us. We have to blame someone, something.  We need to escape.
But the ugly is only a deception. If we let go of the hurt. If we throw it as far as we can. If we combat it with forgiveness. If we choose not to believe the lies, but search for the truth. If we let God show us that our chosen captor is just as flawed as we are. If we choose to step out of it until one day, we see a glimmer of beautiful again. We see it reflecting from our friends. It radiates their beauty too. It grows from behind their eyes. They no longer see the ugly. They can only see you.... and the one who covers you with joy.