Pandemic Blues
Healing does not happen all at once. Attempts at self-care and improvement can seem futile amid a global pandemic, where everything feels out of your control. The pandemic’s impacts led many to recognize the importance of self-care — whether mental, physical, or spiritual — and prioritize it in their lives. Erica S. Qualy provides an honest depiction of one of many moments of vulnerability through this self-portrait, wherein teardrops create lines in her exfoliating mud mask.
In the Dirt, a poem by Erica Qualy
sometimes you just want to be scooped up
and recognized
for the flower that you are
trying to stand tall
amongst all the weeds
in the dirt
hidden by the grass
and then it rains
I mean it REALLY starts to pour!!
and then the sun goes down
and you go to bed yourself
and you think what’s so good about
being picked anyways?
but that’s when it happens
you’ll bloom tomorrow
when no one is looking
and that triumph will be yours
and yours alone