İÇİMİZDEKİ MÜCEVHER

Give Yourself a Promise

Always listen to yourself, love yourself, respect yourself, and take good care of yourself.

Here I am again, greeting you from the page of a picture book!

In my previous piece, Paper Dolls, I had talked about how picture books are ageless—the images speak more, the words are fewer, yet the meanings resonate with all ages. Now, I want to talk about another ageless book: The Jewel Inside Us.

Even the title says so much to all versions of ourselves, doesn’t it?

The jewel within us is precious, born with us. It stays there, even if we never see it—we know it’s there, and just feeling it always brings comfort. It gives us courage and enthusiasm to learn and create. It hides who we truly are and what we’re capable of. Most importantly, it makes us feel worthy and brings us closer to ourselves.

Then we grow up. (Suddenly.)

We grow up fast. (As if we're in a rush.)

We become adults. (Proudly.)

As we grow up, distance starts to build between us and our jewel. The number of people who have an issue with our inner jewel increases. Some don’t want our jewel to exist at all. In the panic of not being wanted, we first abandon our jewel, and the fear of not being loved sets in. Our fears surround the jewel. The fear that if they notice our jewel, they won’t accept us; the anxiety of not being like everyone else grips us. Yet our jewel was our most distinctive light.

We try to dim it, even destroy it.Fear of rejection, judgment, criticism, being unloved, or being alone wraps us up and distances us from our own radiance.

And now, our jewel feels so far away.

We betray ourselves.The more layers we place between us and the jewel, the stronger they get. And each layer pulls us further away from ourselves—from everything that makes us, us.

As we drift away from our jewel through those layers, we no longer recognize ourselves.We become disconnected from everything that once defined us.This is where alienation begins.We crave to be loved more, accepted more, even deceived more.Each day, that need grows.

But what if the opposite happened?

What if we never hid the jewel we were born with?

What if we never tucked it behind layers of fear?

What if we placed everything that made us us into a precious box—carefully locked, guarded, and only opened by us?

What would life be like then?

We’d be surrounded by a community that supports our true selves.Among people who let us express ourselves as we are, our jewel would always shine bright.

To live within a circle of people who accept us as we are—who love, respect, and care for us in our most natural state,wrapped in unconditional love—requires that we first embrace our jewel.After all, it was born with us.

Our only task is this:If your jewel is trying to shine from behind deep layers,start peeling them away one by one.Face each one.Say goodbye.Focus on seeing the truth.

As we make peace with each layer, we begin to get closer to our jewel.

The book reminds us—It’s not an easy journey.

But if we’ll find ourselves at the end of the road, isn’t it worth it?

The journey itself is beautiful—a journey from us to ourselves.

And that is the most precious thing of all.

The book is by Anna Llenas.

No matter your age, once you read it, you’ll wish you had read it sooner.Some books are like that—they don’t explain much,they hide magical sentences among large illustrations.They capture you with their simple and gentle phrases,and draw you in.

Picture books speak volumes to adults with just a few words.

With inspiration from such a book, I wanted to remind you of the existence of the jewel within us.

Let’s check in with our layers. Let’s face them one by one and reach our jewel, polish it, and let it guide us. Let’s see which cycles it will help us break and what new paths it might reveal.

Zarife TARAKÇI