The hug I did not receive, but felt in my heart

Disability should not be treated differently. The simple tale of the embrace of understood the meaning of love

During this trip to Africa, I have visited many orphanages, met hundreds of children, and listened to a thousand stories that have left their mark on me. But there is one little girl I carry in my heart most of all.

She was in an orphanage they call special children.
I have always hated this term, because every child for me is equal, deserves the same look, the same smile, the same love.

But in that place, among so many voices and hands outstretched to greet me, there she was.

She didn’t get up, she didn’t run to me, she didn’t squeeze me tightly like the others did.

She was simply sitting still and hugging me with her eyes.

I heard her silent call, so I gave her priority.

I moved closer, and even though she could not squeeze me, I did it for both of us.

At that moment, her heart was pounding. Mine followed it. And in that moment, without words, without apparent gestures, I recognized one of those rare moments when life teaches me what love really is.

All too often we treat children with disabilities differently, with a softer tone of voice, with expressions that emphasize difference instead of breaking it down.

And we do this not out of malice, but because we were not taught differently.
I for one, as a child, used to behave that way.

Then I traveled, saw the world, and learned that every child-every person-has the right to be treated with the same
simplicity, the same respect, the same love.

You don’t need different words, different attention. It just takes looking at them for what they are: pure souls, hearts beating in unison with our own, if only we approach them in the right way.

Source and image

• Andrea Caschetto’s Fb profile