Life begins when you realize you are not the only person who needs love.

Children believe they are the center of the world.

Nothing can tell them differently.

Their wishes, their demands, and their worldview place them at the center.

Nothing exists beyond the realm of the child’s mind.

They do not understand the importance of a reasonable bedtime.

They can’t subsist on cookies.

Every want, every whim must be fulfilled ASAP.

The adult, the caretaker, is there to fulfill their prejudiced view of how the world works.

Me... me... me...

Only life experience will have a chance to break through their cosmic certainty.

It will happen when...

The first time, they feel hungry, and there’s no food that night.

The first time they see their caretaker cry.

The first time a wish goes unanswered.

Slowly…

Given enough time, this child will grow up and hear other voices besides their own.

The voice of despair.

The voice of fear.

Even, even the voice of hope.

The voice of love.

Every human who has ever lived or shall live goes through this cycle.

But not all come out the other side genuinely alive.

Awake.

Childhood is a type of shell.

A prison.

A shell that keeps the mind safe from reality.

Too soon.

Experience like a hammer raps raps raps on that shell, asking each of us to come out and play.

Join the party.

Not everyone can break the shell of childhood.

Forever caught in their own head, they can’t hear other people cry.

They refuse to hear the call for justice.

For freedom.

For hope.

For equality.

They know they are safe in their shell.

For love which reaches its never-ending arms around all.

Society, like a forest, is filled with life.

Some are sprouting, some are growing, some have lived a lifetime, and winter has come.

While others are still in the ground, in their shell, waiting for that drop of human kindness, that drop of reality, to break their shell and let them grow.

To begin.

Peace

Daniel J Frey aka Toby