Do not mistake
every eye that looks at you
for a window.
Some eyes are mirrors,
carrying old dust,
old fears,
old storms
they never learned to name.
They will look at your silence
and call it pride,
because their own heart
has never sat peacefully
with quietness.
They will look at your distance
and call it cruelty,
because they do not know
how many times
you had to step back
just to save your soul.
They will look at your light
and search for shadows,
not because your light is false,
but because something within them
has forgotten how to receive brightness
without feeling wounded by it.
What they think of you
is not always your truth.
Sometimes,
it is the echo of rooms
inside them
where love was misunderstood,
where pain became language,
where judgment became shelter,
where their own reflection
frightened them.
So do not carry
every opinion
like a stone in your chest.
Do not become small
because someone
could not see you fully.
Do not turn your soul
into a courtroom
where every stranger’s thought
is allowed to testify.
You are not
the fear they project.
You are not
the wound they speak from.
You are not
the mirror
they refuse to clean.
Remain still.
Let your truth stand
like a wall under moonlight,
silent, patient,
unshaken by passing shadows.
Those who can see you
will see you.
Those who cannot
will only meet themselves
in your name.
– Dr Haroon Rashid
