How are you?

 Often times people ask me the question:

How Are You?

Like at the grocery store, or at Walmart, or at church.

Or anywhere.

It used to be an easy rote answer.

I'm fine, and how are you?  I'd say.

Mostly I was Just.Fine.

Now I find myself panicking inside.

Do they REALLY want to know how I am?

Are they asking the loaded
"kyle-has-cancer-and-we-really-want-to-know"
kind of How Are You?

Or are they just asking the "hows the weather" 
kind of How Are You?

At Walmart, or the grocery store, or church I find myself
with a figurative "Thought Bubble" floating over my head...

Inside my mind, churning through most of what I 
typed in that picture below. 

(A lovely picture of me inside the Doughnut Plant
bathroom in NYC.  It'a entirely covered in mirror tiles and
does wonders absolutely nothing for your self esteem!)

Sometimes I say I'm fine.

Mostly I say fine.  Just fine.

Sometimes (if I'm feeling bold and also NEVER at the 
grocery store or Walmart) I say...

Do you REALLY want to know???

Is that what you're asking?

Sometimes they say Yes.

And I look them in the eye.

And tell them.

So if you see me, or Kyle, and ask us the question.

How Are You?

And we seem panicked or confused...

Just know that 'How Are You' packs a loaded punch 
for us these days.

We're just not sure if you REALLY REALLY want to know.

Maybe we would ALL be a little better people if we
asked this question a little more sincerely to the people
that we ask it of.

How Are You?

You never know what someone else is carrying in their 
hearts.

How Are You?

Don't we all carry things around with us?

The loads, the burdens, the sadness or pains.
The worry, the fears, the questions and the concerns.

Maybe the next time we ask someone, "How Are You?"
We will look them in the eye and say,
"No REALLY, tell me, how are you?"

Maybe it will take a little longer to listen.
Maybe we will understand them a little bit better.
Maybe we will appreciate our lives a little bit more.
Maybe we will love a little bit deeper.
Maybe we will come away a little more touched.
Maybe we will come away learning something new.

How Are You?

And that's what I've got for today~

Morning Side Park in New York City with the

June SUPER MOON rising above us, and the city.