Learning to love

The sandbox

     The sandbox was full of kids, three boys and three girls.  It was a hot sunny day.  The kids played together building and knocking down each other's castles.  In the midst of the chaos, she sat,unaware of her stripes.  Unaware that she didn't fit in on the inside, although she looked like them on the outside.  Today, her soul would awaken to the knowledge that she wasn't a horse, she was a rarity. A zebra in a world of horses. 
     How she missed the warnings, she'll never know.  Could it have been the histamine causing her brain to zone out?  Was she escaping her world of torture into a beautiful world of fantasy.   She'll never remember where she was in her head.  But the world moved on around her.  Unbeknownst to her, the other children scurried from the sandbox.  They heard the war cries of their peers. 
     Her zebra stripes began to show.  She heard no cries.  Played on, unaware of the dangers.  But her stripes could not defend her from the sting.  She remembers it to this day.  The pain of the wasp seemed to radiate through her.  Her body, reacted with a protective sort of terror.  Willing her to live yet warning her of doom.  Her lungs begging for oxygen.  She felt the swelling in her throat.  Knew that this might be the end.
     As her focus turned to awareness of the world she noticed the other kids hiding from the enemy.  She wondered to herself why they hadn't rescued her.  Why no one had warned her.  In her heart she felt betrayed.  They had left her in harms way.
     Her memories emerge into the body of a woman.  Older now she realizes, her own body had betrayed her not her peers.  She could not heed the warnings because she had been lost inside herself.   She wonders now how often she loses touch with the world.  She questions if others can see her stripes.  They can, she knows that now.  They judge her for her differences.  Mock her when she gets lost in her head. 
     Her awareness of the stripes brings reassurance.  She feels special.  She chooses to love and embrace her uniqueness.  After all, "true friends will except you despite your differences", she reminds herself.