Inner Child

With her orange shorts and bright blue stained top, the toe headed child looked up at me with her tear-filled hazel eyes and spoke not a word, yet screamed, "Save me."

Every one of us has a child inside of us. I am talking about the little you that lives and breathes with your every breath, thinks with your every thought and cries with your every pain; the only person on earth who truly knows 'exactly how you're feeling.' I'm talking about the inner child.

It's very difficult for some of us to get in touch with our inner child, possibly because of the pain the very memory of times of old could/would invoke. What we fail to realize is that the pain is there regardless, and that that little boy or little girl will not go away, but will forever look at us and wonder when we will help.

We can ignore the annoying neighbor, the constant gnawing of a nasty old woman, even the piercing sound of a train going by, but we can't ignore ourselves. Especially the desperate child who not only resembles you or me, but also feels exactly the same pains that you and I feel. This is the child who constantly seeks your approval. It is the little one who knows your innermost secrets, and loves you just the same.

In order to heal from the baggage of our past that will forever try to drag us down, we must embrace our beautiful young selves and hurt and laugh right along with…ourselves. We must tell that innocent little child that she is perfect just the way she is or that he has the cutest smile in all the land. We must assure these babies that we will protect them from this moment on and that no one will ever be able to hurt them again. We must listen to the fears that we thought were tucked away forever and we must return to the original feelings of helplessness that once scarred our being. We must be willing to rip our hearts out and sit them on the table; we must become more vulnerable than we have ever been.

We must caress our inner child as if it were a precious, rare gem stone; which it is. We must love this child like we've never loved before because in doing so, we are facing the only opportunity at loving this way again; and realizing that we are lovable and can be loved. It's the only way we will every allow ourselves to receive any sort of healthy love.

We have to promise to listen at all times to whatever the innocent one inside us has to say; be it silly, unfounded or ridiculous, we must listen. We must acknowledge. We must smile and assure the child that we understand. We must make sure that the child knows that he or she is the most important person in the world at that very moment; at every moment.

It is only after we embrace our inner child that we can begin to heal our inner selves. It is after we return to the scenes that we hate most, this time as grown-ups, and we make the bad times bearable; it is when we unleash the flood of feelings pinned up for all those years, that we dry the child's tears and begin to mend the wounds within. In doing this, we release this chained up youngster inside and free ourselves from the confines of the scary, big, cruel world. We prove to ourselves that we feel love and that we give love- every moment. We learn that there is love and that it truly begins with us.

Take hold of your child and go for a walk in the woods; run in the meadows; laugh at the playing kittens; wonder and be amazed. Know that this child is yours, that this memory is yours, that this time will become your past and that this child