My Thousand Beautiful Scars

Scars can heal and reveal who you are

picture generated with Midjourney by author

A thousand cuts from a blend of family trauma inherited from my great-grandmother, guilt that I felt over the responsibility for my sister’s death in a car accident, and a toxic family puppeteered by my narcissistic abuser mother, made me cocoon up and bury myself away to protect my essence — and, frankly, to ensure my very survival, — also somehow…