Since before books were written the stories of ghastly beasts were told to children to scare them into behaving. As we grew into adults the pictures of those to beware of were hideous and easily spotted in the shadows or hiding in forbidden places. Since before books were written the untold stories of smiling black hearts were kept as secrets and never given a face or shown where to look in the light for them mixed in among our daily lives.

Monsters are leaders. Monsters are beautiful. Monsters are funny. Monsters are pious. Monsters are friendly. Monsters are seductive. Monsters love the light. Monsters are always what you want them to be. They are what they need to be in order to live. Chameleons. Shape Shifters. They blend into our fabric and become part of our environment so you can not see them when looking directly at their cloaked face.

They feed on trust and kindness. They view innocence as a feast fit for a king. Empathy and Sympathy is something they see as weakness and use it as a tool for strength. They take freely and only give to receive. They wipe tears to quench their endless thirst. They lie with beautiful and sad words. They plant seeds that take hold of your mind and heart. Compassion is used as bait to lure their prey onto the feeding grounds alter of the monster fellowship.

Usually it’s too late before you see the distorted and hideous being behind the veil. From the time we are small it is driven in us not to judge on first impressions so we suppress our natural instincts to recoil when our senses tingle. We tell our children to “not be shy” or “say hello” when they hide behind us. We don’t want to be viewed as uncaring, judgmental, cold hearted, racist or uncool so we put our selves in harms way by replacing that very first inner blip of wrong and red flag instinct with what we know as acceptable social behavior. This is the playground of all monsters. A safe place we created for them to thrive in and hone their skills.

There is a way to spot them but you will have to let go of everything you have been taught and programmed to believe. You will have to listen to yourself and trust your own instincts. I know we all have said, “I wish I hadn’t second guessed  myself”. That second guess was the suppression of your natural instincts for danger. They can be seen from your peripheral vision. Like when you catch something in the corner of your eye and you are not quite sure what you saw but you know you saw something that wasn’t right. When the hair on the back of your neck stands up and you feel uneasy. An unsettling movement you catch in their eye or twitch on their face right before they pull you in with their warm and comfortable smile.

Don’t ever stop being kind and accepting to the unknown. Be open and loving to  people no matter what or where they come from so the scales do not become unbalanced. All I am suggesting is for you to trust yourself in recognizing a monster when you see one and be okay with sharing the story so it can be told as a warning and used to protect our children and selves. Shine a light on them so you can see the shadows they cast.