The two Within

Within me there lives a little girl.

She is filled with love and joy

Wide-eyed and trusting

Seeing only good

And seen by the world

Through loving eyes.

Magical new doors open to her

As she follows the miracles

Sparkling all around her

Like snow.

Within me there also lives an old woman.

She is stiff and brittle

Filled with sadness and pain.

She works too hard

Because that’s all she knows.

No one sees her

And she sees only difficulties

And more pain.

She can no longer remember

How to find the miracles

In the cold.

The little girl knows the way

And the old woman must learn to follow.

She moans and threatens with every step

And the little girl must learn to keep going.

To trust her own heart and wide eyes

To know that each step taken on this path

Protects and nurtures her

Heals and frees the old woman

And leads us both to love.

— India Leigh