A poem

Today I would like to focus on praying for anyone who is struggling with communication issues, 

dementia, cognitively impaired, too ill to speak and those who are dying and unable to express themselves.

May we all find ourselves respected, seen, heard, understood and feel treated equally to all others.

My own cognitive dysfunction is severe and I wrote this poem to try and articulate it.

May we all be blessed. Amen

So what can I offer you

From my different perspective of the world?

From a place of frequent paralysis and empty-mindedness.

I can share my inner knowledge of being.

My world, so empty of business, 

becomes a place of waiting, seeking inner peace and understanding.

The things I know are hard won amidst the decades of intense suffering.

The emptiness of action, is replaced by the stillness of pure being.

Even when I cannot communicate,

Yet still I am:

A person, aware on the inside, unable to express who I am.

I need you trust that I am still there.

I am still me.

I am still thinking even if in a different way.

I still need you to know me, not to patronise or deny me.

Do not count inexpression as both an internal and  an external loss.

Do not retreat into child-like conversation as if I cannot understand.

Maybe I cannot fully follow every word, but maybe I can.

Trust and hope in that.

Believe still in my equality and respect me.

Be still with me.

Don’t busy yourself past me for want of an ability to find or understand me.

Believe and know that I am still here on the inside,

Longing to be seen, recognised, validated, attended to, cared for.

For I am peace among the ruins

And long to be seen for who I still am.