Running Towards Softness : Black Queer Living with Chronic Pain

Accepting that I live with chronic pain was not an easy place to get to. Experiencing dismissal from doctors who didn’t listen to my concerns, made it hard to even be in conversation with myself and how I was feeling in my body. Watching my mother struggle to be a mom, homemaker, provider all at once at the expense of her rest, well being, reflection made it all the harder to hear my needs. I watched her not realizing that it had made an impression. Not knowing that it made it almost impossible to imagine what rest would like for me.