Rising from wounds to strength: a manifesto of self-salvation
Intro
This piece is my declaration of rebirth and resilience—a journey of self-salvation, healing scars, and rising from pain into strength. A poetic manifesto of rebirth and resilience—choosing self-love, healing scars, and rising from pain into strength.
IRebirth
September 20, 1991
I am all I have—
this skin marked by absence,
these hands that learned to hold themselves up,
this heart that keeps beating despite its cracks.
I am my wounds and my strength.
My own salvation.
No hands will lift me.
No voices will pull me from the abyss.
No one is coming.
No one but me.
Today, I stop being my own enemy.
I set down the dagger I’ve used to wound myself again and again.
Today, I plant my feet firmly on the ground and vow—though my soul trembles—that I will not abandon myself.
My pain will not be my home.
My ruins will not be my epitaph.
My scars will not be a sentence,
but a map leading me back to myself.
And even if my knees bleed,
even if the night weighs heavy on my shoulders,
today I choose to save myself.
And in that simple, fierce act—
today,
I begin to be born again.
Nel Duarte
Sept, 20, 1991—Bogotá, Colombia.
Read my reflection on “Mirror and Wound”
Thank you for reading this reflection on rebirth and resilience. May it remind you that choosing self-love and self-salvation is always possible, even when healing scars still ache.