Fewer Lines Less Mask

I’ve started noticing how often I used to shape things. Not in dramatic, obvious ways, just a softened voice, a careful word choice, a slight shift in tone to keep things smooth. 

It came from care, but also habit. A quiet habit of making sure thing landed well, that no one felt too uncomfortable.

I can still feel the impulse sometimes…the urge to soften what I say, to ease the space. To smooth things over.

But most of that shaping is fading now. It’s not that I tried hard to change it. Rather it no longer feels necessary. The old pull is there, but it doesn’t move me in the same way.

And when I don’t shift or soften, when I speak plainly or allow space to stretch out…there’s a different kind of quiet. Not always more comfortable but more honest. Less efforted. Sometimes more real. Sometimes more still.

There’s also less reflected back. Less affirmation. Less response. But in that, a kind of steadiness. A deeper kind of seeing…not through others, but from within.

Some moments, I still catch myself shaping things. I start adjusting, then pause.

Or I say it differently. Less dressed up.

It doesn’t make everything easier. But it makes things clearer. More solid. 

I’m still here. Still in relationship, still learning. Still finding where I hold back and where I can let go.

With fewer masks. Fewer rehearsed lines. And more openness to meet things as they are, without rushing to resolve or retreat. 

And somehow, that feels closer to truth.