This Little Light of Mine

I woke up this morning... contemplating MANY things of course... My mind is like a freight train sometimes... So, I was thinking about a boy that I worked with... E came to us, 15 years old...and had not spoken a word in over 2 years. Each day he'd come into the group room, sit in the same chair and stair out the same window and NEVER uttered a word. One couldn't make eye contact with the kid, cuz his hair was long and completely covered his face. He was dirty and catatonic really... E and his family were assigned to ME. Our individual sessions were...ummm...interesting... I just talked to myself ~ which isn't uncommon really. days. weeks. months. This continued... the staff began to "diagnose" him ~ schizoaffective, schizoid, retarded... They wanted ME to discharge him because he didn't seem to be connecting to anyone, but I think they just didn't want to work that hard. I refused to give up on him... I refused to discharge him. I was determined to find the light that I knew was in there... I knew somewhere locked in the recesses of his heart was a little boy that was lost... Every day, I greeted E...everyday I did what I could to chip away at that wall. I would NOT give up on him... one day... E greeted me with a grunt. That WAS progress... I, yes ME, lost my cool with him one day... Very near tears (or perhaps there were a few trickling down) I yelled at him... Told E that he was the only one that could let his light shine... he was the only one that could unlock the flood gates... and that it pissed me off that he refused to try... I went on for quite some time ~ in my good 'ol frustrated ~ I can't get it out fast enough ~ fashion... I went on and on... To MY amazement, he pushed his hair back, tears in HIS eyes and he SPOKE. He said, "Krista nobody has ever cared to see what is inside of me... WHY? WHY do YOU care?" In that moment...I just hugged that kid... "He's alive!" That began our long journey, E and I. I worked with him and his family for over a year... by the end... the family was actually talking to each other... admitting they loved one another...spending time together... E cut his hair, wow such a handsome young man... Once those flood gates opened however, I could NOT shut him up. LOL His mother called me recently... E graduated, has a job and is doing remarkably well... She called to thank me for giving them their son back. I simply said, "L your son never went away... his light had just burned out for a time... I was simply the match." There have been times when my little light burned out too... feeling completely lost and devastated by "life's" blows... knocked over for a time... there have always been those people that held the match ~ helping me to get back up... This little light of mine... I'm gonna let it shine...