The girl who learned how to twirl

There was once a little girl who didn’t want anything to break. So she worked very, very hard. She wanted everyone to smile.

The girl who didn’t want anything to break learned how to fix things before they broke and how to keep a smile on her face. But when she wasn’t busy fixing things or making smiles, the little girl put on her beautiful twirl dress. And she twirled. She twirled and she twirled.

….

There was once another little girl. This little girl was born into everything already being broken. And no matter how hard she worked, no one would smile at her.

The girl who never saw smiles just couldn’t fix it. So she ran away. But everything was broken there too, and, still, nobody smiled. She had never seen or heard of a twirl. Nothing was beautiful.

….

The girl who didn’t want anything to break grew up. And found out she was broken. She found out that she couldn’t fix it all, and sometimes making everybody smile wasn’t the best thing.

She still loved to twirl, even though she didn’t have a twirl dress anymore. There was something about it. Something that made her beautiful.

…

The girl who never saw smiles grew up too fast. She saw many other things that little girls shouldn’t see. So she wiped away her expressions, and she did whatever she had to do.

She couldn’t afford to love anything. She couldn’t risk feeling.

…

The girl who didn’t want anything to break…

The girl that was broken… found Beautiful. And He promised to un-break things and twirl her into Forever and Ever without letting go.

So she decided to twirl with Beautiful. 

Even though she still worries on some days about everybody else’s smiles.

The girl that found Beautiful decided to never let go of Him, and to go wherever He said to go.

…

The girl that found Beautiful found the girl who never saw smiles, doubled over in brokenness and shame. The girl who never saw smiles couldn’t look the girl that found Beautiful in the eyes, so she just walked behind her.

The girl who never saw smiles had run away again. She was given a new home full of smiles, and she felt guilty. So she left. And ran back into broken.

The girl that found Beautiful remembered when she had realized she was broken. And she was still realizing it on that day. And today.

She also remembered what Beautiful did, and what He does, when everything is broken.

The girl that found Beautiful taught the girl who didn’t see smiles how to twirl.

And she melted.

And she smiled.

And her face filled with light.

And she laughed.

The girl who learned how to twirl was free for those few moments. Her smile was from the inside, and nothing was broken.

The girl who learned how to twirl held on with her whole fist to a hand that was bigger than hers. She learned to trust that hand to lead her in a procession of her own beauty, and even to lean back into a leg-kicking dip.

For at least a moment, the girl who learned how to twirl encountered Beautiful.