“You don’t say very much.”
“I don’t need to,” you reply.
I nod because you’re right and I bite into my wrap.
“Hey look at this.” You show me your phone and smile as I laugh at the image. You turn back around and focus on your food again.
Quick exchanges.
Laughs and smiles.
Lunch is better when you’re comfortable enough not to talk.
Where is your home, little one?
Are you lost?
It’s ok. Take my hand. I’ll lead you to the promised land.
Do you need a home, somewhere to stay?
A place where you know, you’ll always be safe?
What is home?
A feeling or place?
Come with me, we’ll find it together, wherever it may be.
Little by little you see the change.
Electricity flows through your limbs, energy pulses through your muscles awakening everything that had been dormant for too long.
With every jab and every thrust you shake off the atrophy of stiff joints and learn to move again.
Focus on yourself in the mirror don’t look to your right or to your left.
They’re not why you’re here.
They’re not why you power through.
Their body is not your body.
Their goals are not your goals.
It hurts less today than it did last week. Focus on that.
Focus on the fact that you can do more than you did two months ago.
Don’t quit.
Don’t stop.
Don’t give up.
Every day you get a little bit stronger.
Every day is a new victory.
The Secret Life of Pandas 