Beauty, that’s what I see.

Complexity and mystery, all wrapped up in this image before me.

I know the face, and I know those eyes, but who is the person gazing back at me?

Is she loving?  Is she cruel?

Is she what I see and what I don’t see?  Do I really know at all?

And so we study one another and I wonder…

Who is that?  Who is it, really?

What a shame that I wonder…what a shame that I admit nothing and everything all at once.

What do you see when you look at her?

Do you see her pain?  Do you see her worry? 

Do you validate her, or plainly assume and judge?

Is she accepted, or condemned?

Beauty, that’s what I see…but there’s so much more!

Strength and childlike weakness.  So much knowledge, and so much weight.  As this woman regards me, she asks so many questions with her calico eyes.  “Who do you think I am?”  “Who would you like me to be?”  AH, now, there’s a question: Who would you like me to be?  I begin to suspect that’s a question that only I can answer for her…a question that NEEDS an answer.

I feel lost and alone in the dark…except for those eyes that penetrate my soul and look for the answer.

Perhaps she will be herself one day…perhaps I can help her find herself.