Pain — Heal or Control
Inspired by life events. B y Adena M’lynn What’s the difference between healing and controlling the pain? See— one looks like breathing, the other looks like holding your breath until your face turns blue. One says: Let the wound bleed, let the scar form, let the body remember what it survived. The other says: Cover it quick, hide the blood, swallow the hurt with another pill, another prayer, another promise. Pain wrapped in panaceas, wrapped in bandages too tight, wrapped in silence that chokes more than it comforts. Healing whispers, This hurts now, but it will not hurt forever. Control shouts, This must not hurt, not now, not ever. Healing is messy. It stains sheets, ruins dinners, makes you cry in parking lots. Control is polished. It smiles in photographs, pastes on affirmations, clenches fists under tables. And me? I’ve tried both. I’ve drowned the ache in pill bottles, stuffed it down with lies, called the covering strength when really it was surrender. I’ve also ripp...