There
was a doll. She was on one of the racks displayed at the toy section. She is
very beautiful and pretty just like all the other dolls lined up beside her.
But there is something very different to this doll; other than a prominent mark
on her face, which might be the result of a scratch, her eyes twinkle like the stars
and the smile on her lips is radiant, just like that of a woman in love.
Every
day, this doll would wait and wait and wait endlessly, with a hope that one day
someone would buy her so that there would be a person who would take care of
her, play with her, make her happy and important. But most of all, she needed
someone to love her.
She waited day after day after day. Suddenly
it came - someone took her from the display, bought her and then brought her
home. Imagine the delight of the doll. Her wish had just been granted. She was
no longer on the display shelf but in the house of her owner.
It
was the start of a happy and beautiful life of the doll. She and her owner were
inseparable for wherever one goes the other goes as well. She plays with the
other toys and sometimes gets dirty with them. But at the end of each play time,
her owner would always return her to that special spot at the cabinet reserved
only for her. She knew then she was loved.
One
fine day, while they were playing outside, her owner's friend came by with
another doll. It was a very beautiful doll, fairer than any she had ever seen.
However, she did not feel any jealousy towards it because she knows that she
was deeply loved by her owner and that in itself was enough for her.
When
the friend left and they in turn, went inside the house, she heard her owner say:
"Mom, I want a new doll! Exactly like
that of my friend. That very same doll!"
The mom answered: "But you already have one. You play with her
everyday and you said you love your doll more than all the other dolls in the
world. Why do you want to have another one now?"
As
her owner answered, the doll went flying into the air, landing on a heap of
dust on the floor, "I don't like my doll anymore. She is not pretty. She
is not beautiful. She smells awful. I want a new one!" The mother replied,
"But I told you many times that I would wash her for you. Yet you said no
because you love her just as she is!" The owner retorted, "I don't
care! I want another doll."
From
that day on, everything changed for the doll. Oh they would still continue
playing with her owner outside the house, but when another beautiful doll
passes by, the owner would squeeze the doll until there were obvious marks on
it’s body.
After playing, she was no longer returned to
her special spot on the cabinet but was left on the floor beside the discarded
clothes, gathering dust and dirt. Yet the doll continued loving her owner
because she knew of no other way than that. She continued to hope that her
owner would love her and take care of her again. She continued to hope that all
the good things in the past would happen again. She kept hoping and hoping and
hoping.
Until
one day, her owner picked her up, looked at her with disgust, and then threw
her at the trash bin. That was the last she saw of her owner.
The
doll cried. She cried and cried and cried. She found it very hard to accept
that the owner who had loved her so much was the one who actually threw her in
the trash.
Inside
the bin, the doll felt like she was the ugliest, dirtiest, and lowest doll ever
created and that nobody else would accept and love her. But despite the pain,
the doll never gave up. She continued to hope that someday, her owner would
miss her, bring her back from the bin and play with her again.
But
the garbage truck finally arrived and she knew that her owner isn’t going to
come back for her. As she went tumbling down with the rest of the garbage, she
saw at the corner of her eyes, the new doll her owner was playing. She knew then
that her owner would no longer miss her, need her nor love her.
As
she lay on top of the mountain of trash, she felt her world crumbling down. She
knew that she will remain in that situation until she gets covered by another
heap of garbage. She knew there was no longer that beautiful cabinet she would
return to for rest.
While
she was busy wallowing in pity and pain, to her surprise, someone picked her up
and looked at her with eyes of delight – as if the person had just found a
treasure.
The
doll was brought to a very small house and was washed and dressed anew. At first,
the doll did not enjoy or even appreciate it because she was still hurting very
bad. She dreaded that one day this new owner would abandon her again and throw her
in the garbage.
But the
day went smoothly for the doll. Her new owner and friends played with her and kept
praising her for her beauty. The new owner was very proud and happy to have
such a doll and shows this by always hugging her tightly. She felt again that
feeling which she thought she would never again feel - Love. She knew in her
heart that her new owner loves her much more than the first one ever did. But
after her experience of being hurt and abandoned, she couldn’t avoid having doubts
and fears and so she wanted to find out first.
She
waited for night time when they would all rest. She believed in herself that if
this new owner loves her, then she would again have that special place at the
cabinet reserved only for her. But there was no cabinet; instead, she lay on
the bed, hugged beside her owner. And for the first time, before her owner went
to sleep, she kissed her and whispered: “I love you and I am very glad someone
threw you away so you could be mine.”
The
doll slept blissfully with this thought in mind: that an old beaten bed beside
the person who loves you is a far better place to rest than on a space of a
beautiful cabinet alone. She was glad that someone found her and loved her despite
her worn out condition. And she promised herself that she would love this new owner
more deeply and strongly than she had loved the first.
