When the monsters howl through your bones at night,
when you daren’t be alone in silence for fear of their whining begging noise,
for fear of feeling their claws scrape across your heart; have you ever stopped to think and feel?
Have you ever stopped to realise that the monsters are not monsters; but parts of you, calling you to heal.
Showing you where to bring kindness, where to put balm, where to forgive and how to grieve.
They are revealing to you where you are being controlled.
These beings in you may seem monstrous, as they were birthed from awful moments, coming into being through trauma, fear and loss.
And then, instead of choosing healing, you took that part of you, that piece of yourself,
to lock up in a dungeon, deep in your soul, carrying on the torture, the hate and the denial. Calling yourself ‘monsterous’ when all you really needed was to scoop yourself up, show yourself love, rock that wounded fragment in the safety of your heart until that part of you is no longer monstrous, no longer raging with the lack of care, or howling in despair.
But instead sleeping, healing and melting back into your being from being heard, seen, met and honoured.
From being set free.
• Art by Chiara Bautistaart•