People always assume you have to be one or the other—
the soft girl
or
the dark girl.
But I’ve always been both.
Soft in my hope.
Soft in my heart.
Soft in the way I care too deeply
for the people I allow close.
But dark in my healing.
Dark in my desire.
Dark in the quiet places
where my shadows rebuilt me
piece by piece.
I am gentle because I’ve been hurt.
I am strong because I survived it.
I am soft because I choose to be.
I am dark because that’s where I found myself.
You can be both.
You are allowed to be both.
And neither part of you is a contradiction.
Reading Trauma Mama: Velvet & Taboo 