Can you hear me? Sweet child, I see you in there. Struggling. Reaching. I’m here. Can you see me with the eyes that won’t make mine? I see the pain and struggle to find words that elude you. I see you plea for someone to understand the prison in which you live. I hear your words over and over in my mind, “I’m not the same. I’m different.” I see the judgment. I feel it too. Those with children with more obvious limitations believe you aren’t challenged enough to warrant their compassion. Those with children of no apparent limitations at all are irritated by the differences they don’t understand. Being trapped between two worlds is a cruel reality you face each day. I hear the words, “He looks normal to me…” and the attitudes that come behind them. If you were in a wheel chair no one would expect you to run, yet the expectations placed on you every day are just as absurd. So many can’t grasp the injuries no one can see. It’s so easy to push away what we can’t grasp. I hear you, sweet child. I hear your breath as you hold it when you recoil from someone’s touch. I hear too when your breath finds mine in our secret synchronized walk toward the peace you so desperately deserve. I hear the tapping….the tap, tap, tapping that gives you the sense of control when all else has spiraled away into the chaotic. Have it. Keep it. It’s yours when so little is. I hear the clenching hands you hide from view as you do your best to put into practice societal protocol in an attempt to appear just a little less “different”. I hear the tension in your voice when the emotions of others dictate your efforts of expression. I hear you, Sweet Child. Can you hear me? Struggling. Reaching. So we sit….in silence. We meet in that place where words are irrelevant. I hear what is said as your tears fall on your tiny hands…..only to be blanketed by mine. As you reach to my face, and gently wipe away my tears, it is then I know. You know. I heard you…..and you heard me. ~(an excerpt from Hearing from the Heart, by Kelly A. Ratai)
Posted on: Fri, 04 Apr 2014 15:26:47 +0000
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