I put my sweet boy to bed tonight after saying goodnight to my husband on the phone. So proud of my geeky rock star husband and of my ever delightful son. I came downstairs and got sucked into Dateline with Anne Curry's story about mental institutions in Serbia.

New parents in Serbia of mentally and physically challenged children are encouraged to never meet their baby and hand them over, never to see them again. Children and adults are placed in institutions that made me want to weep and vomit. People of all ages are tied up, over drugged, and forced to live in unbelievable conditions. No money, not enough professionals and many excuses followed. I tried to gently shake off the images by browsing the internet and turning on a movie.

 I was inspired to write a poem after watching just the first ten minutes of a film I'd never heard of before called, Evening. The insecurity, the beauty, the boundless love, the connectedness of everything and everyone. These were my thoughts:

Inspired by Evening

Does everyone have this big white house in their dreams?
We are all made of memories
and of the people and places that have touched our skin
I hope I'm not the words that have fallen from my mouth.

Do we all look how we feel?
Because the face I see in pictures is one I've never connected to
its changes and shapes and colors are not me
How much can my soul be revealed through my lashed windows?

In a quiet place I find towering waters that I have leaped and flown over
by choice and a hard beating heart
Now haunted by tied up children in cribs they will never leave
until a hillside in Serbia where they will be forgotten.

My peace is their peace
so I watch over my child
for myself the only love I understand.
Amazed each moment that my husband still loves me.

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