17 Comments
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Mark Crutchfield's avatar

Beautiful Elijah,

What comes through most strongly here is the sincerity.

There’s no attempt to dress pain up as a gift or pretend it all led somewhere noble. You’re honest about the fact that some things just hurt, full stop, and that what grows afterwards is understanding rather than strength for its own sake.

I appreciated the way scars are treated as evidence of care, effort, survival, not as something that needs reframing into triumph. That feels grounded and generous, especially in a world that so often confuses numbness with resilience.

Thank you for sharing this.

It reads like it was written to remind people they’re allowed to be who they are, as they are.

Frank Sterle Jr.'s avatar

To a BEAUTY That BLINDS

.

Her looks transcend the barrier called fair

His heart and will to resist her she binds

Thinking naught but of her smile he pines

For the release of her bouncy blonde hair

Her leaving his small realm he could not bear

Like the silky long curls her finger winds

He's limp, all for that beauty that blinds

From all else yet at her helpless he'd stare.

.

While seeing the shallows though not the signs

Showing more than a pretty visual layer

Whether the twain may too meet with their minds,

Hearts will share their most secrets should they dare

Feelings far further than vague dating lines

To know eternity their souls shall share.

Aaliya's avatar

This is absolutely beautiful and deeply resonating

The stranger's avatar

Enjoyed the beauty mingled with pain

Painfully beautiful and beautiful pain are the descriptions that come to mind when reflecting on such a piece.

You never forgot pain. You carried pain with you and turned it into hope, while not neglecting the people who didn't suffer pain

Demonstrating the lack of playing victim in your personal narrative

Absolutely loved it ♥️

Echoes From The Fire's avatar

I think scars are always a mix of beauty and imperfection without context which you rarely get just by observing the scars alone. The beauty belongs to the story of survival.

Elijah Westin's avatar

That is a fair point. The scars are proof of the story but the story itself is where the beauty comes from..

Echoes From The Fire's avatar

Exactly

pm's avatar

Agree completely... So amazing 💛💛💛

Hina Gondal's avatar

This is so beautiful ❤️

Outtamydamnmind's avatar

Your words hit hard. Scars both seen and unseen carry memory, pain, and survival, and you capture that so honestly. There’s something raw and unflinching about owning what’s left behind, and it really resonates.✨

Josh's avatar

Love this, Elijah 💙

Hawtorn V. Rabot's avatar

I've got many scars as well.

They won't go away. Oh well.

Elijah Westin's avatar

Most of them stick around unfortunately..

Gary L Taylor's avatar

A great piece there. The underlying message is positive but it doesn't dress up or try to hide any pain or hurt that has come before.

The line about traumatic or painful events not necessarily making you stronger but making you the person you are stayed with me, and that follow up where you make your self stronger by sitting with them and then growing with them having been a part of you really resonated.

I found that to be powerful, truthful, raw and uplifting. Great writing.

Dipti  Vyas's avatar

This feels like a love letter to survival—scars not as damage, but as evidence of having stayed. There’s so much compassion here, especially in the refusal to romanticize pain while still honoring what it shaped. Proof that feeling deeply isn’t a weakness, it’s a skill most people never bother to develop.

Elijah Westin's avatar

I love how you said that. You truly understand how it is..

Pain can often be romanticized but that doesn't acknowledge that it is still pain..

Thank you for reading and reading the words as they were intended..

Dipti  Vyas's avatar

Yes—honoring pain without dressing it up feels like the truest kind of respect. I’m glad I met it the way you offered it.