I shared this yesterday on various social media accounts to honor World Suicide Prevention Day, and thought I would share it here as well. NOTE: This post is about suicide and self-harm.
--
Today is World Suicide Prevention Day. As a survivor, I want you to know that you are not alone and that help is available. I keep a list of resources and helplines available on my website, including the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (1-800-273-8255). Please know this: we need you. We need your story.
Here's a brief excerpt from Grace is a Pre-Existing Condition to mark this day:
"A palimpsest is a parchment that has layers of writing on it. The older layers have been erased to make room for new writing, but the erasure is never quite complete. Evidence of the old writing remains. My tattoo ends with a semicolon, a reference to Project Semicolon, whose founder, Amy Bleul, claimed as a symbol of a sentence that could have ended but continued. The semicolon represents a story that is not over. My arm is a palimpsest. When I look at it, I read the grace and the enough-ness before I encounter the old scars."
