Born of the Cracks

For my unit project during the last unit of CPE in my residency, I engaged in one of the most healing pieces of writing I have ever produced. To further integrate my past trauma, I wrote a series of short thank you letters. These letters were written to people who influenced me and shaped me in both positive and negative ways during past seasons of my life, including my younger self at different ages. Finally, when I finished the letters for a season, I wrote a poem to creatively reframe that period of my life. Born of the Cracks was inspired by my experiences between the ages of sixteen to nineteen when I was deeply broken, beginning to see the possibility of healing, and trying to make sense of traumas both new and old.

Born of the Cracks

Broken and shattered

By divine Kintsugi my brokenness became beautiful.

Missing pieces become gold-laced finery.

The wound becoming a fountain of life.

Yet the beautiful wounds I cover with the

Thick

Splotchy

                Paint of holy trauma.

Hiding the work of self and divine hand beneath a veneer of

Holy repression.

Perfection and excellence collude to hide the beauty of brokenness.

Yet resilience is born of the cracks.