The Rebel Child

There was a girl who could never be tamed, a free spirit, a wandering stranger that resides within. The girl grew into a woman eventually, and she started to dance her way through the crossroads of life.

A man met the woman, but he never knew the girl.

The girl was that rebel child, born to run along those grey edges of life. The girl was the same person who the man fell in love with in those glimpses he saw, because it was that part of her that truly embraced life.

He didn't understand, and he tried to cage the girl, to tie her down with strings of promises and threats of responsibility.

And so she slowly withdrew, bogged down with the things that she could not comprehend.

And as the girl withdrew, the woman changed. The woman he loved became someone who no longer cared, who could no longer love. She became someone whose emotions became blunted, whose priorities became black and white. She no longer saw the sunset through the eyes of one who appreciates beauty, no longer smelt the sweet roses that grew in her garden.

One day, another man came and uncaged the girl. He unbound the promises, save one, and showed her how responsibility could help her grow her wings. He showed her another sky that she could fly in.

And so she did.

He still held her by his promise, but she was so loosely bound that she never even noticed. And the more freedom he gave her, the more she fell in love with him because he had given her the gift of trust, and she had charted new territories, and met new people, and learnt that her capacity for loving was infinitely a lot bigger than she thought it could ever be.

And so the woman learnt to love.