Inside Each of Us

Inside each of us

Lives a younger, fearful version of ourselves

Still waiting for the words we never heard

Still longing for the approval we never received

Still mourning the loss of healthy attachment

Still believing the cause is our fundamental existence.

Within each of us

Lives a wisened, knowing version of ourselves

Saying softly the words we desperately need to hear

Quietly but determinedly offering our own approval

Loving the parts of us still bearing the heaviness of loss

Knowing on some level we were always enough.

The challenge, dear soul, is to implicitly learn

To listen to the opposite of what we were told

And to believe in it the way we believed them.