I see you

To the homeless veteran who came back from the battle physically
Yet can't escape because the battle came back with him mentally
I see you.
To the young mother struggling to make ends meet
Not sure how she will make it until the end of the month with extra mouths to feed
I see you
To the woman who is terrified to be alone
Because she’s seen what happens when a woman takes a long way home
I see you
To the child who does everything not to leave
Because home is where the monsters live
I see you
To the one trying so desperately not to feel
Or praying what they see isn’t real
Who fights with demons no one can see
Who struggles to pretend to live normally
I see you
To the couple mourning an unseen death
Because the longed-for child never came close to drawing breath
I see you
To the one who feels so overwhelmed and broken
They start to see ending it all as the only option
I see you
To the bullied child just trying to Get through school
I see you
To the person so uncomfortable in the skin they have because it doesn’t match the spirit within
I see you
To the person afraid to reveal or even be with the one you love because your family, because society just can’t deal.
I see you
To the one who cuts meals, works out until you are ready to pass out and tries every trick in the book but the scale won’t move.
I see you.

To those who get up every day despite fighting these battles and find the will to fight them again,
I see you

To the one who always wears long sleeves
to hide the scars the razor blade leaves.
I see you

I see you because I am like you. We may not fight the same battles in our effort to win this war, but we are in it together.

I see the anxiety in your eyes as you face yourself, the pain and the panic that you hide behind carefully constructed masks.

I see the overwhelming sadness and loss that you can’t even talk about because- well this isn’t your first rodeo and you know people don’t want to hear not every dream has a happy ending so no one even knew the pregnancy existed

I see how you flinch and give a wide berth to every person you pass on the street, trying not to show your defeat, not to show your fear that the next one who passes will cause you harm.

I see how you struggle, I understand your plight - because I fight my own demons every night. I feel the stress of a mother who can’t pay the bills and the heartache of staying silent after losing something precious that you couldn’t share. I know the real monsters are humans, I’ve met them too. And I’ve seen when everything goes completely off track, self-medicating to get away from the nightmares: I’ve been there too.

To everyone fighting their battle, to those who feel they are on the losing side, to those who hope peace lies in a bottle or bag, to those hanging by a thread and those hiding under the bed. Your battle is your own, you are strong enough to win. You weren’t built to lose.

Because even though our stories are different, our battles different, our lives different, we all fight the war to find some normalcy, some happiness, some love in all of this madness.

I see you.