Once Upon A Time,
There was a little girl with thoughts she could not control
(obsessions).
They were loud and intrusive,
they told her mommy and daddy were going to die,
if she didn’t flick the light switch on and off
One
Two
Three
Four times.
The thoughts told her this simple task,
(this compulsion)
would save mommy and daddy.
From underneath the crack of her bedroom door
you could see, for hours,
a flickering light.
This little girl lived out her childhood,
her innocent,
(not so innocent)
young days,
in fear of mommy and daddy dying.
She feared that everyone she loved would disappear
and that one day
she would be all alone.
Day in, day out,
She breathed in her obsessions,
and spat out her compulsions.
She watched her childhood slip away,
she hoped and prayed
that she would never, ever
be lonely.
When people caught her flicking the light switch four times or
tapping the wall six times or
looking over her shoulder eight times,
they would ask her,
“What are you doing?”
In a hollow voice, she replied,
“Nothing.”
Because she didn’t have the words to articulate
the thoughts or,
the fears or,
the worries,
prancing around in her childish brain.
Many years later,
this little girl grew up to be a young woman.
A young woman who eventually found her words,
the words were obsessions and compulsions.
She was given a sword to fight them off,
she swallowed magic pills to keep them at bay.
Now she keeps on thriving,
and thriving,
and thriving.
Sometimes happy endings do come true,
and that little girl grows up
to be a vivacious,
courageous,
ambitious warrior.
Her fears of loneliness
are triumphed by a self-love
that intimidates
and radiates
from within herself.
Thinking about this little girl,
the young woman scoops her up,
wraps her arms around her small, fragile body.
A body, a girl, who was broken,
who lost her childhood,
who was trapped in her own mind.
The young woman holds this girl tightly,
protectively,
and murmurs into her ear,
“Happy endings do come true.”
-Katie Campeau
