Stories

People is a hard thing to describe. It is pain and fear; healing and hope. It is worthwhile and brokenness, and hate and love. 'People' is mistakes. And it is hurting beyond hurt, until you think you'll die, and sometimes you do. People is people. Nothing more, and certainly nothing less.
It is the stories we are around each day, but do not see, that have the greatest impacts.  Disappointment within minutes, and disappointment within months.  A smile, maybe, for both, or maybe those in both situations are crying.  We do not see, and we do not know.  Yet we decide, "their problems can't be as bad as mine."
A smile can save someone's life.  A hug can save someone's heart.  It is what we do to lift others up that make our stories glow.  It is what we say that will show.
We cannot see the stories in the eyes, or the face, or the body, or what they do or say with their friends, but within the inner heart.  Maybe that's why we're so ignorant.
Yet who are we to say what is important and what isn't?  I, a pet owner, know for a fact that animals are just as much people as we are.  They are just as intelligent, and have just as many feelings.  'People' are truly not just humans.  If my cats or my dog died today, I would be loosing a family member.
And these are what the stories say.  Stories of family, of friends, of finding your place or maybe loosing what place you had.  Foreclosure, death, broken friendships, moving... the list goes on and on.
We do not see them.  We do not know them.  But ours is not the only story.