'Please'...is everyone we meet

Please hear what I am not saying
Don’t be fooled by me
Don’t be fooled by the face I wear
For I wear a thousand masks, masks
That I am afraid to take off…
And none of them are me
Pretending is an art that is second nature with me but don’t be fooled
I give the impression that I am secure
That all is sunny and unruffled with me
That confidence is my name
And coolness is my game
That the water is calm and I am in command
And that I need no one
Please don’t believe me. Please.

My surface may seem smooth
But my surface is my mask
Beneath this lies no complacence
Beneath dwells the real me
In confusion, in fear, and aloneness
But I hide this. I don’t want anyone to know it
I panic at the thought of my weakness
And I fear of being exposed
That’s why I frantically create a mask to hide behind
A nonchalant, sophisticated façade
To help me pretend
To shield me from the glance that knows
But such a glance is precisely my salvation
My only salvation and I know it
That is, if it is followed by acceptance
If it is followed by love
It is the only thing that will assure me
Of what I can't assure myself
That I am worth something

But I am afraid to tell you this
I don’t dare. I am afraid to
I am afraid that your glance will not be
Followed by love and acceptance
I’m afraid you’ll think less of me
That you’ll laugh at me and your laugh will kill me
I’m afraid that deep down I’m nothing
That I’m no good
And that you will see this and reject me
So I play my game, my desperate game
And a trembling child within
And so begins the parade of masks
And my life becomes a front

I dislike hiding. Honestly
I dislike the superficial game I am playing
The phony game. I’d really like to be genuine
Spontaneous, and me
But you’ve got to help me
You’ve got to hold out your hand
Even when that’s the last thing I seem to want
Only you can wipe away from my eyes
The blank stare of breathing death
Only you can call me into aliveness
Each time you’re kind and gentle, and encouraging
Each time you try to understand because you care
My heart grows wings, very small wings
Very feeble wings but wings
With your sensitivity and sympathy
And your power of understanding
You breathe life into me
I want you to know that

I want you to know how important you are to me
How you can be the creator of the person that is me
If you choose. Please choose to.
You alone can break down the wall
Behind which I tremble
You alone can remove my mask
You alone can release me from my shadow-world of panic and uncertainty
From my lonely person. Do not pass me by.
Please do not pass me by
It will not be easy for you
A long conviction of worthlessness builds strong walls
The nearer you approach me, the blinder I strike back
I fight against the very thing I cry out for
But I am told that love is stronger than walls
And in this lies my hope
Please try to beat down those walls with firm hands
But with gentle hands, for a child is very sensitive
Who am I, you may wonder
I am someone you know very well
For I am everyone you meet.

~ a poem sent to me by dearest sis Annie - an apt reminder for us to keep reaching out to others and to look deep into the hearts of every individual who need the touch of God's love in their life..

Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?
My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.

~ 1 John 3:16-18