Thank you, Sue,
For being the first
To answer my call for help,
For being the first
To want to understand me
Through and through
And see and hear my suffering
From my point of view.

Thanks
For unconditionally accepting
And even appreciating
The shameful parts of myself
I tried to hide away
For so long from the world,
Especially from
Myself.  

Thanks
For holding my hand
As together, we explored
My version of childhood,
My personal nightmare,
And changed it for the better.
For letting me see what happened
To everyone, not just to me,
From a new perspective,
A wiser, more caring one
Than I ever had before.

Thanks
For not trying to change me,
Although I begged you
With your magic wand
To make me become
Someone else, anyone
But the inferior person
That I was convinced
I was
From birth.

Thank you for letting me see myself
Though your loving,
Compassionate eyes,
For teaching me how to
Forgive those who I believed
Had hurt and wronged me,
Especially myself,
The hardest one of all
To forgive.

Thanks for showing me
That my painful self image
That made me suffer so,
Never is, nor ever was,
the same as me,
But rather, a self portrait
Badly painted,
A gross distortion
Of my true self.
Somehow, you showed me
That there was nothing
inherently wrong with me,
Although
I had spent a lifetime
Trying to discover
All my imperfections
And fix them,
To no avail.

Thanks for loving me
Without any strings attached, or
Hoops I had to jump through
To deserve your loving kindness,
And for showing me
With your sweet affection
And honest appreciation
That I was lovable
Through and through.

Finally, thanks Sue
For letting me love you,
And in my loving you,
To somehow
Turn that loving around
And begin to love myself
And others
Again.