Image found here
I wonder how it would have been different
if someone had looked closer
if someone had sat with the tenderness of you
as you trembled
as you let a lifetime of hurt rip you
open
I wonder how it would have been different
if someone had looked deep
enough to see you finally.
The crying-out little girl who hungered
to be loved. The young woman who couldn't go on
thinking
she wasn't.
I wonder how it would have been different
if that someone had gently
held your heart in theirs
and leaned closer
giving you permission to empty
the ache
And if, after there was nothing left to empty
that someone had stayed.
And whispered these words--
I love you just the way you are.
I wonder how it would have been different
if you could have seen you in someone's reflection
if you had known
how heart-breakingly enough you were
if maybe then
you would have decided
to stay
I wonder if in your leaving
there is a message here
for all of us
Oh, I love this, Julia.
ReplyDeleteI believe that, in her leaving, there is so much left to teach us all...
XOXO and thank you.
Christa, you are a treasure.
DeleteThank you for showing up here. Thank you for showing up so fully for life.
Love and more love to you.
My husband once said to me that he loves me for who I am, not for what happened in my past. (He already had me at "hello..", but this cemented our relationship for me.)
ReplyDeleteIt is so very healing and powerful to be loved in just that way.
Thank you for sharing these hauntingly beautiful and profound words.
Deb, you are such a beautiful woman--what a healing gift that your husband saw this right away. Thank you so much for sharing this sweetness.
ReplyDeleteHave I ever told you how much I appreciate you? So much.
Sending tons of love your way.
Thanks, dear friend.
Deletelove to you, and your aunt, and to all of us
ReplyDeletejust the way we are!
thank you!
So beautiful and heartbreaking. I was just recently thinking about Joan Didion's saying that it wasn't until after her husband died that she saw in the mirror how old she'd become. She said, before that, she'd seen herself through his eyes - where she was always young and beautiful.
ReplyDeleteYour poem reminds me how very important that is.