Hide Don't Seek

 

    When we were younger hide-n-seek was a fun game. A game that allowed you to see how well you could hide before someone found you. The more you played the more you learned.

                Some of us learned we loved to hide but not to seek, because that is what we were best at. Some of us didn’t like the hiding part because it was too stressful, but we loved to seek because this part, the searching part, was fun, it was a mission.

                Did this game chart a path in our life as we grew, by preparing us to understand if we should hide or if we should seek? Or did you figure out both suited you just fine, following that path would lead you to help and keep some things hidden.

                Are we as children learning life lessons or pieces of ourselves while playing childhood games? If I sit here and breakdown each aspect of those games and life, I could figure it out. But I was never a seeker. I believe I may have liked to hide to an extent but really, I was usually the one that said, “Over there.” And pointed to the one that hid, type of player.

                If I think about the game, I believe it was a sign of trying to stay out of the line of sight and more of a peripheral view type. “Yeah, you can see me but only if I don’t step backwards out of view. As adults we believed hiding and not seeking was the way to go. Today the tides have turned for the younger generation and they tend to seek more than hide. In some ways this is good, in others it’s a, not so cheap, way to escape what is truly wrong. A crutch to keep life how it is by saying, “I’m in therapy. Don’t take anything I do seriously!” In other ways therapy is helping and we have less people self-harming themselves or harming others. This would be the growth we need. Let's change the standards we grew up by: Hide Don’t Seek and start seeking those who may still be hiding and need to be seen. Let’s bring them out of hiding quietly so they know there is help and they are not alone.