Trauma, whether minute or grand, changes you emotionally + healing through that trauma is difficult when the door to your healing is constantly + repeatedly being unhinged. And when you’re trying to walk or run through your trauma by yourself, it’s so lonely + gruesome + heartbreaking, but no one can hear your heart shattering except for you. So you do your best to decipher + acknowledge your pain, to name your pain, to identify it so that you face your pain + allow it to move through you like flowing water instead of trying to swim in it like a river that’s almost frozen. And once you get through the part that feels like your body is passing through a forest of fire, you start to feel. Feel the coolness + the warmth from the things that make you feel your best. Feel yourself repairing, comforting, + preparing to receive all the love you missed out on because something or someone hurt you. But you had to heal alone + that part of you deserves to be acknowledged + soothed too. So when you reminisce on how that trauma brought you to a place where your pain made you crumble + writhe + scream + become mute with emotions, you’ll be reminiscing from a place where you acknowledge that the tumultuous work you did to repair yourself by yourself stemmed from the recognition that determination + faith + love for self got you out of that place of darkness that was hanging in the corner of your vulnerability.
-Chloe Mitchell