(Buried) Treasure

I carry my heart

in solidarity 

with a small sister in Afghanistan,
in Nepal, in Brazil,
in Haiti, in Africa,

who wants to go to school,

but who may not,

since she is not a boy,

who must cover herSelf and serve,

yet in whose heart

a dream of More still burns.

Each small girl, 

surviving in servitude,

each girl devalued,

set aside, married young

to serve her youth away....

each girl, a treasure,

so often unclaimed,

one day,

on her journey,

will discover her true worth

lies not in how she is seen,

or in the life she is forced to endure,

but in the qualities that

lie within her heart and mind:

courage, fortitude, strength,

her soul a temple

of inner light.

Wayfarer, watch closely,  for,

before your eyes,

one day, 

against all odds,

 this girl will

Rise.

"A girl is not defined by what her society sees.
A girl is defined by what she sees inside herself".
from the documentary Girl Rising

Kids, I watched Girl Rising yesterday and it is a wonderful documentary, by Richard Robbins, poetically showing the lives of girls in developing countries, so many millions of whom long, but cannot afford, to go to school. They live lives of servitude and of not being valued. But those girls to whom a miracle happens, who get a helping hand, oh how they rise when they are offered a way out and grasp that moment. A fantastic film which would certainly make our privileged kids sit up and take notice of just how lucky they are.

posted for Mary's prompt at dVerse: Treasures. I do have a lot of personal treasures. But having seen this film, it made me think of the buried treasure that lies in the hearts of millions of girls all over the world.