– Reflections of Hope –
When I came into the world,
I was just a child running;
Finally running free,
in a world of hope.
Yet my body and mind were in ruins.
My spirit was worn away and ugly
from all of the years spent
locked away in darker holdings.
I protected myself from loving
so that I would never have to lose it.
I made myself harder
so that I could never be hurt by it.
I thought it made me stronger.
I thought myself so unworthy of love
that I shut my heart to the world
which I had run so far to reach.
I shut my eyes so tightly
to keep from seeing myself reflected in anger
that I could not see the goodness
which had grown within me.
I hardly remembered in those early days
what it was like to feel anything else.
I had never realized until now
that I was just as big inside of myself
as the world was on the outside;
I only ever had to look inward
to find the answers I needed.