Let it be.

An Anti-bullying message. You can find the challenge here

Life. Pulsating, vital, invigorating life is so much more than the painted smile on a face. The heady laughter in company. The eyes you see in a photograph, photostyled for Insta approval, they are no window to the soul. Just an empty shell of all that you could know, if you took a moment out. A second to think or understand a point of view. Life is all of the in-betweens. The angst and the pain. The joy and the love. You can’t know anyone truly. But moon as my witness, you owe it to humanity to try.

A child.

At home. A mother intent on death. An AWOL father. A brother who needed a parent. And a betrayal that will remain locked away until I too am dead.

At school. A loser, stupid and ugly and beyond repair. Crappy trainers and unkempt hair.

Too short. Too quiet. Too nerd. Too weird. Too fat.

And when they silenced me into submission. Finally.

Too thin.

Deathly thin.

So, they bullied me for that.

Before my body gave in.

I wonder still to this day. How different could it have all been?

One outstretched hand instead of a clenched up fist?

Bullying is ignorance.

And arrogance.

And all of the in-betweens.

The insecurities-

And power trivialities,

Of living in a world where-

Better is

Best.

Defined only by who?

But the parts are always

Less than the whole.

You don’t have to understand

What’s behind an Iris.

To see a human being.

Just know-

You do not know.

What you do not know.

So, let it be.

Let us

be.