Born to shine - a jewel shining through

In my 20s I was attacked by someone who I had seen as a father figure, someone who had talked me through my dad walking out and my parents divorcing, someone that had mentored me at work. And in that one moment I partly died, I didn’t stop moving, but my authentic self was completely crushed. This led me to situations and decisions that were not me as there was no real me anymore. Perhaps this was the start of the emptiness that I used food to try to fill. What I did not realize then was that food cannot give you the personal growth to fill a hole in the soul. My heart died but hearts can be resuscitated.

Despite the ice that had penetrated my heart, despite how much I hated myself, someone saw through and breathed life back in. I was a jewel inside a rock: my authentic self a diamond, uncut, burnt in the furnace, but still surviving and as people chipped bits away, my authentic self was still there, just well hidden and in need of that just one spark, one breathe. And little by little it has grown, consuming the poison and ice, a jewel shining through. I am not quite finished and I may be unpolished, but I am still a diamond, and we are all born to shine.