When the Moon Was Ours: Sharp Edges of a Rose

Each person has a way of trying to escape their own inner pain, but does running from that pain really make it go away…no.

Coming from a place of experiencing my own pain and wanting to use that knowledge to guide others through theirs by becoming a counselor, I noticed a lot of inner turmoil was experienced by all the characters within the writings of Anna McLemore’s , When the Moon Was Ours.  
 However, the pain that spoke to me the most came from Miel, herself.   

Miel first began as a scared young girl who came to be part of a community through a mysterious event when she fell out of the water tower in front of the townspeople.  She, herself, did not know what had happened and at that moment her life had become a mystery, even to herself.  She was a normal little girl except she had the ability to grow roses from her wrist, making her unsure and scared of her own self.  Each time she tried to communicate that pain, she was unable to do so.  She not only was running from others, but in fact, she was running from her true self.  She wanted to be a normal girl, but that was not who she was, she was special and although she did not feel what she had to offer was beautiful, others wanted a piece of what she had.

Miel fought to find her inner truth from the very beginning.  Each time she saw her friend Sam, she had a wanting that she did not understand, her rose to his moon.  This was her best friend, but yet, an attraction was overwhelming and, in many ways, forbidden.  Each time she drew close to Sam, she pushed herself farther away.  The night she and Sam spent together haunted her, made her question their bond.  Each moment Miel was around Sam, she fought those hidden desires.  Her inner turmoil manifested physically each time a rose would shoot its way through her wrist.  She had pain deep within her that had to find a way to escape.  From the very beginning, she was taught the pain that came from the budding roses was evil, so she did not know the beauty of it.  Each time she and Sam argued, she was cut so deeply inside that her body needed a way to express it, so the sharp point of a newly, birthing rose tore through her skin, as her heart was being stretched in places she did not understand.    She had been encased in a glass coffin which brought to the surface fear of losing her life and represented how trapped she felt internally, not being able to escape the tragedy that she believed was her life.  The cuttings of the rose, each time Ivy called upon her, tore a piece of herself that she could never get back or repair. Little by little, she was dying inside with no way to escape.  Every time a rose was taken from her, the blood that seeped through the opening was her  body’s way of letting go and breaking free from the inner confining of her pain.  Who was she, was she loved by her parents, and most painfully, did she deserve love from anyone?  Sam was her place of safety, but what did it really mean? 

           
 It was not until Miel faced her pain that the rose bloomed, the glass coffin shattered, and she was free…free…free.