They say that time heals all wounds.

But what if the pain

Never subsides,

And the bleeding never stops?

And the scars that people wish they could rub off,

You’d give anything to have instead.

Instead of the pain, the anger, the resentment.

And what if time…only makes things worse?

What then?

 

Do you bury it all?

Push it down so deep that only God remembers it is there?

Do you lock it up and throw away the key?

And every once in a while,

The locked box beating in your chest

Tries to break open,  scream out the world, and let go.

But your cage of ribs closes tighter and tighter around your heart.

To keep everything hidden.

Soon enough, you begin locking other things away besides pain and anger.

You don’t like something about yourself, so you bury another chest,

And throw away another key.

We have transformed our hears into locked boxes,

And our ribs into cages,

To protect what we have so painstakingly hidden from the world.

We lock our true selves up in a prison

For fear of being seen for who we

Truly are.

We wear masks,

We pretend.

We try to become something new,

Something artificial.

But we are not candy.

We are we.

 

Each and every one of us has been molded by Perfection with care and attention to detail.

We should return the favor.

We are real- so we should BE real.

We are not lock boxes or safe deposits.

We are not artificial and we are not candy.

 

For years I have tried to accomplish the most difficult task known to male or female.

I have tried to look in the mirror and be happy  with what I saw.

Who knew it could be so hard!

For years I have been withdrawing parts of myself from the safe deposit box,

Little by little…

Until I found out that there was no reason to put it there in the first place.

Because I am not candy.

I am me.