See this little girl? She has been crying out to me for a while, trying hard to get my attention, but I’ve been too busy. I look away, brush her aside and say, “Maybe later, sweetie.” I do my best to ignore her, after all, what can I do? Too much time has gone by….the damage is done. But still she waits. I look deep into those eyes and feel the sadness there….the fear, and I say, “I wish I could help you, but I cannot. Don’t you see how busy I am? And it’s fruitless, there’s no changing things now.” She tries to hide behind that Mona Lisa smile, but I know better. I know only too well how frightened she is.

Why am I trying so hard to ignore her? Well that’s easy to figure out…..I didn’t want to face it…..face the pain I knew I’d find there. She feels abandoned…..alone and lost. She craves comforting and love. Someone to wrap their arms around her and tell her it’s all going to be just fine- that she’s safe and no harm will come to her. She needs me, but I wasn’t sure I could be the one to make it all better. Wasn’t there someone else more qualified? What good would it do now anyway?!

I couldn’t escape her. Her sadness became a part of me and her fear became my fear. I’d hear her whispering, telling her favorite tree of her concerns. Then she would laugh….laughter that sounded a lot like the tinkling of wind chimes in the distance and my heart would almost burst with love for her. One day I got up the nerve to ask her why she was so afraid and I held my breath as I waited for the answer. “I’m lost,” came the timid response. “I want to go home.”

There! I knew it! It was too much, it was beyond my ability to help her. What she wanted, I could not give. I felt the despair and it was suffocating….I didn’t want her to continue to suffer. I realized I had no choice- I’d hidden from this long enough. The time had come for her to be healed and I was the only one who could bring that about, but could I really find it within me to offer reassurance to her….could I really tell her that it was okay, that she was safe? She would know if I lied.

She had been seeking safety and completion from the moment she came onto this planet. She felt as if she’d been torn from the arms of her most loving mother and tossed into the abyss. What was this strange and cold world she found herself living in? Her love and reverence for the planet was almost unbearable. The trees and rocks were sacred to her and they became her companions and confidants. Why didn’t the others- those who looked like her, but were so indifferent to the beauty and breath of the planet see that all was alive and part of the All that Is.

I knew her fear….we all do to some extent or another. It is the same pain carried within each and every one of us. The sadness, the feeling of helplessness and futility….homesick for a world that we barely remember. We all have that big empty place within us that is meant to be filled with love, appreciation and acceptance.

I had to find a way to help her. It had to be the truth- I knew she would not settle for platitudes or excuses. And so I went on a quest. A journey to find the answers- she deserved that much. It took a long time. I looked everywhere; from the great religions of the world to tarot cards, from wise masters of life to psychics. And then I found it….in the least likely place of all….within me.

I found the Divine residing within me, buried under all the fear, all the lies, all the pain….all the guilt. I found God where She had always been. She hadn’t been hiding, She had just been waiting patiently for me to come home to myself.

I turned to the little girl and I looked into her eyes and told her how much she was loved. Eternally loved. Beyond belief loved!! And then I let her know she was safe. Her safety was in her innocence- she didn’t need to worry for herself or her beloved Gaia, it was all good. I explained to her how she had chosen, as a soul, while in the safe embrace of her Creator, to experience otherness. Something other than a world of pure love and so she had come into a world where she would temporarily forget who she was. She would go “behind the veil” and not remember her true origin or her divine nature. She would experience contrast– choosing to know fear in order to better understand love. She understood. She remembered that this was true….and, after all, hadn’t the trees been telling her this very same thing?

Turns out it is never too late to heal that frightened, sad and abandoned child within us. We don’t need to go on a quest. We just need to sit in silence and allow the truth of our Being to whisper to us, telling us of our Divine Nature. Our connection to Source cannot be broken. We can believe we are abandoned, but in truth it is us who has abandoned God through our forgetfulness….our free will choice to know otherness. When you feel the pain of your Inner Child, know that you have the wisdom and tools to heal her. The pain is there to remind you that it is time to awaken. Time to come home to yourself….forgive/let go of all the supposed wrongs and evils you believe others have done to you. You are the Divine. You are here to discover the truth. There is nothing to fear, no place to long for and no lack of love in your life. You hold it all within you….the very place our loving Father/Mother God put it for us to discover….just as soon as we were done playing our game of otherness.