My anxiety is like a scared child living inside me. Traumatized and terrified, it writhes around incessantly, searching for the comfort that it hasn't yet learned to create for itself. As I've grown older, wisdom and experience have allowed me to rationalize my difficulties on the surface, yet my anxious inner child has remained unchanged.

When I wrote this poem, it was never made to go public. However, it's something that has given me great comfort to read in my hardest moments. If this could be the case for just one other person, that ranks higher than my own personal fears and vulnerabilities.

So here is a poem to my inner child, from the grown up who has swum the waters of addiction, chronic and mental illness and has lived to tell the tale.

Go gently sweet child.

As though all you touch is cotton, spun and woven from the clouds
You are allowed to break the pace, to rest your head and hide your face

Your longings do not dissipate.

As all you force will ricochet
Do not begrudge your every day
The sun will shine its golden rays; the moonlight bathes the pain away
I promise child, you’ll be okay

You are light and you are precious
You can float within the tides
Like glistenings of the moon on wave, there is no shame to hide
You can rest your head here on my chest now for the night
Know this never-ending cycle is a slow and steady ride

Let go of your pretending
its okay child, you can cry

When you’re scared and you are anxious and you feel you’re all alone
know wherever I may be
That once with me, you’re always home

Though the world may feel a battle that you can no longer cope
It doesn’t matter for the moment, there’s a more important note
there’s someone here who loves you and they’re closer than you know