On this episode of Grief and Gratitude, we’re beyond joy to be in conversation with Kelly Thompson who says, “Grieving is a good thing. Authentically grieving is the antidote to trauma. It’s okay.” Kelly starts by reading “Sunday’s child,” a piece that might or might not end up in her memoir in progress. Kelly was three months past sixteen when she delivered her baby who was born early. She writes, the “birth was virginal. I had not been born yet.” And her daughter came “hurtling through scattered stars, an imperiled comet. . . through the portal of a girl.”
This gorgeous story of mother and daughterhood, opens a door to talk about disenfranchised grief, which Kelly tells us is grief that people “experience when they endure a loss that is not or cannot be openly acknowledged, socially sanctioned, or publicly mourned.”
Kelly talks about how loss is a part of life. If we can allow it, be with it. Be present with other people’s stories. That’s what she does: bear witness to grief.
If she could talk with her younger self? She’d tell her, “There’s nothing wrong with you,
and there never was.” After a beat she adds, “The only thing wrong with us is what we believe is wrong with us.”
For these bits of gold and more, please tune in.
Kelly Thompson is a writer, mother, truth-speaking human who’s been published in BOMB, LARB, VIDA Review, Guernica, Brevity, Yoga Journal, Electric Literature, Entropy, Oh Comely, Proximity, The Rumpus, and other literary journals. She is also curator and editor for the Voices on Addiction column at The Rumpus. She lives in the sunlight of the spirit in Denver, Colorado. Find her on Insta @kellyblog or Twitter @stareenite
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