Beauty in Discomfort: In Defense of the Trauma Narrative
I wrote a piece for LitHub recently on the enduring importance of writing about pain. I’ve included a short excerpt below, but if you’d like to read the full thing, head over to their website…
A few years ago, I had a miscarriage. It happened early on, so early that, had we not been trying, I might not even have known we were expecting. Physically, the loss was uncomplicated. There was barely any pain, no need for drugs or intervention. I had a healthy two-year-old.
In the grand scheme of things, I was lucky. Countless women go through far worse every single day. But to me, the grand scheme of things meant nothing. I was devastated.
In the weeks that followed, the need to pour out my thoughts onto paper was almost compulsive. The last time I could remember that sort of a yearning was over a decade before, in the aftermath of a close friend’s death. It was only then that I started to recognize what was happening; the consistent pattern of behavior that has been a part of who I am since I was a child…