{numb}ers

For those of you that follow my blog...have no fear. I am not turning my camera in for a pen anytime soon. 

{I'll throw some numbers pictures in to keep it real}

 I will say that I'm always emotional here...my heart speaks with the pictures that I post,  however I usually let my photos stand on their own.

Today though...I'm mad. Mad and sad.

tired of the {numb}ers game that has gotten so out of control.

In a world where we protect our children from nasty diseases with vaccinations to keep them safe, strap them into super safe cars and tell them to watch out for strangers...are we...am I..doing everything I can to keep them protected from a society that sells them DOUBLE ZERO jeans! As if zero wasn't sad enough.

I want to share a poem I wrote for my daughter years ago. 

{about the same time I decided to be a photographer rather than a poet}

I remembered I had it the other day as I listened to my sweet friend describe with a broken heart what had just happened at her daughters well~child check.

Her vibrant, intelligent, caring little girl was told in grown up words that her number wasn't "right."

Just.like.that. 

crushed.

I get it, the medical part...but this kid is healthy and absolutely wonderfully made. A doctor used a chart that measures BMI  (Bad.Messed~up.Information) to try to explain how if they followed that chart..she'd be on the border of being too heavy! 

Hell-o.

Puberty..dumb charts and metal scales..muscles?

And now...we can add to that weight, a very heavy heart.

Think before you speak.

Ten, tiny, perfect toes

perched on the edge

of a metal ledge

Large, brown eyes

stare ahead

at the numbers

that will tell her a lifetime of lies

She waits..

ten, tiny seconds

for the slide to stop

on her young girl...weight

WAIT!!!

For ten long seconds

my mind screams out...

Baby of mine

you sparkle and shine

you're so much more than a number.

spin on your toes

turn your back on the lies

your worth can not be measured.

A scale can't put numbers on all that you are

an old piece of metal can't go up that far.

I look at the nurse and speak from my heart...

here is where medicine and love

will part

Don't look at my daughter

and assign her a number,

speak her label out loud...

she's so full of life

and I want her to know...

it's not her number that makes me proud.

She's smart and she's funny

caring and brave

independent and honest

and that I must SAVE

For the world will measure her

the rest of her days

in numbers and letters

they will measure her ways

Soft brown waves

little freckled nose

Mommy will protect you 

from what you need not know.

So for today

this nurse and I will have to disagree

as

I spin my child

on the metal stand

turn her around to face me

big brown eyes...

ten tiny toes...

in this moment

my love is all you need to know.