What we become within contexts of wars and crises is indeed not pretty, as traumas accumulate and are stored in the body and spirit, and memories of catastrophes become convoluted passages from souvenirs to ressouvenirs, interpenetrated labyrinths of the cultures of silence, hypomnesia and hypermnesia. 
However, a strange strength emerges. Often masked, that strength is found in the willingness to get out of bed when your body aches. You learn to rise; you learn to cope; you learn to move forward. Eventually, you learn to place the pieces back together, although a few will still be missing, and you become what seems to be at first an incomplete patchwork of identities trying to escape your old being, but as the days go by and the struggle to survive and live continues, you realize that the tabula rasa was just an illusion, and you begin to embrace what was, what is and what is yet to come. 

Sketches on Recycled Paper and Digital Art 2020 Series by Dr. Pamela Chrabieh following the 4th of August Beirut port explosions – – pamelachrabiehblog.com/artwork

Dr. Pamela Chrabieh is a scholar, writer, visual artist, and activist. Author of several books and papers with a 20+ year experience in higher education, communication, content creation, and the arts, she has exhibited her artworks in Canada, Lebanon, and the United Arab Emirates. Previously Associate Professor of Middle Eastern Studies at the American University in Dubai, she currently owns and manages a Beirut-based company offering expertise in Learning and Communication. 
http://pamelachrabiehblog.com and http://spnc.co