WHAT WILL IT TAKE?

I Love You

What will it take to make you smile today? What will it take to make you laugh so much that your eyes water? Will it be something you see? Something you think about? Will it be a word that you’ve spoken thousands of times that suddenly sounds funny? Will it be a memory of a special language only you and one other understood? What will it take to make you smile today?

I know some of you don’t feel like smiling. Nothing is funny at this moment. You may present a happy face to placate others, to make them stop asking you questions or telling you, it’s time to move on; we don’t want to work with you; we all have problems. Get over it. Many people don’t say this, but their actions speak loudly: come back when you can be a happy person.

I suppose many people are trying to escape, trying to find something that makes them happy, trying to find someone who will listen without getting defensive. People in general don’t know how to “hear.”

Some of us think others must hear our silent pleas, we hope they hear our silent pleas, they have had similar experiences. Surely, they recognize that we are changed. We ask others to listen, sometimes to just listen to the quiet with us. Yes, they have ears and hearts but many times those ears and hearts are closed to us. They have coped differently; they don’t want to go through the experience again.

There is no gauge on our forehead showing the distance between normal and where we are now. And if there were a gauge on our forehead, would anyone know how to read it? We cannot go back. We can stay where we are. We can choose to keep going. There are new choices. May we all be blessed by someone who crosses our path and walks a while with us. Someone who "hears" every silent word, every spoken word we say.

ART: LJ Austin “Enough” 2023