Our deepest wounds often shape us as much as our greatest joys. The pain we carry—and the ways we learn to move through it—can define who we become. We asked community members from a broad array of industries to reflect on their defining wounds and have shared the responses below.
Ren Gutierrez
My wounds became my greatest teachers, calling me to face them directly instead of running away. I stepped into the shadows with courage, allowing myself to explore the pain, grief, and fear that lived there, and through this I discovered the power of play, creativity, and movement as pathways to healing. Read more >>>
Kara Sandoval
The most defining wound of my life has been abandonment. I was abandoned at the age of two and raised by the very people who had created the mother wound for my mom. They didn’t really want me either, but they felt obligated to raise me. Read more >>>
Ethan Stafford
Well, my father left my family at a very young age, and my mother died of a drug overdose at 15. I was sleeping on friends’ couches, playing in bands by 16 and 17. There were rowdy nights downtown; I was always tagging along at my mother’s friends’ house parties. Read more >>>
