[NeuroBeautiful]

No One's Child

What do you see when you see me?
Are your eyes drawn immediately to my crooked teeth as I smile? Do you stare in disgust?
Do you hear my stammer when I speak? Do you notice my "uhms and likes" and like other things like that?
Do you feel threatened by my appearance full of imperfections out and exposed?
Would you rather I hide and be unknown to you?

When you see a small child pacing to and fro, wandering around a massive department store
What do you see?
A small human who is lost and who needs safety and love?
Do you wonder which aisle this young child's parents are?
Do you imagine how they must be so worried?
Do you wonder how to help?
When the child begins to frantically scan all around and cry when parents are not visible
Do you try to step in and bring the child to a store employee or do you wait for someone else to do this?
You most likely want to help return this small child to their family
You most likely care and may be a parent yourself

When this same child is now an adult and has not found their parents, what do you see?
Do you see an adult who has not gotten their act together?
Do you see laziness? Do you see incompetency? Do you see lack of discipline and overly-dependent on others?

Do you see the anguish? Do you see the walls she is trapped behind? The anguish she feels?
Do you hear her screams for help?
Do you notice her resourcefulness, her resilience, her persistence and her desire to turn her pain into something meaningful?
Do you notice when she promises to herself she will continue fighting through this hell because one day she will be able to help others come out the other side by having gone through it too?

She is no one's child. She does not have someone looking out for her. She has grown so old in her suffering and does not feel safe in this world and yet she is young in spirit for her life had only just begun.