The Vault is home to intimate stories by women — our deepest thoughts, our darkest secrets, and our untold experiences worth sharing.

MEMOIR

Finding Room

Written by K. Zimmer, Illustration by Lynn Scurfield

Finding Room is a story of grounding, of reclaiming and carving out space after experiencing trauma. Many of us will never experience the trauma that the author has, but there is a thread that runs through her essay reminding us that fundamentally what we all want is to be seen and held, and that the people who love us will always hold space for us, even if that means they have to pull us out of the wreckage. Do you need books? Can you have visitors? Please let me know — I'd be happy to come see you and bring you what you need. Kristen’s memoir-style essay is a testament to how objects and people can help us find our way back in moments when we feel lost, hopeless, or buried underneath piles of stuff.

This story, like a room, holds a feeling — many of them. And underneath the strata of debris that is sifted and sorted, tossed and kept, hope and possibility and healing appear.