i learned that there is a world outside of me
that the pain of others matters not because of how i feel it or don’t
but because of how it hurts them
it took me almost 21 years to realize this
i stand ashamed, humbled, stupified
there are wounds bigger than my petty splinters and scratches
huge, gaping holes where life has been ripped out
i know i can’t fill them, but now, strangely, that’s okay
i’m not going to worry about why’s or if’s because they don’t matter
He must increase, and i must decrease
it was a strange way to learn a lesson, but sometimes wisdom comes from the unexpected
