The Dark Gift

The war is waging.
I am losing.
Words trigger emotions...feelings...
"unnoticed"
"unwanted"
"unworthy"
Bitterness, my poisonous friend
stirring chaos.

Help me, please.

Shut out the hurt.
Effort!
Trapped within these walls of my own making.
So deadly,
So strong.

A light.
A hope.
An improbable healing.

"Look within!"
Pierce the confusing gloom,
Seek every corner
Extract the bitterness within.

Build a box carefully within my mind,
My soul.
First one side,
Then the other.
Deceptively frail...and then...

I pour my darkness into the box
Filling it impossibly
Darkness and swirling shadow
Forced within this box.

I look around my inner realm.
Silence.
Whiteness.
Peace.
Freedom.  

I hold this box in front of my mind's eye,
Carefully wrapping it in
Beautiful, shimmering paper
A large golden bow
Gracefully tying it together.

The beauty serves sharp contrast
To its dark and hurtful contents.

"Now, imagine Him coming to you."
The echoes of my friend's counsel drifts in my head.
"You give it to Him, and He takes it,
Keeps it
And it is never yours again."

Never? I wonder
Never? I ponder
Holding it out
To the One who can take it from me.

The shouts
The dissonance
The tendrils of bitterness..
...all gone.

"Is it really that simple?"
I wonder, I ponder
As I watch His retreating back.

A whisper of peace echoes
In the peaceful whiteness of my mind.
The peace that surpasseth all understanding
Has replaced my Dark Gift.
Borne away by Him.