When we speak of shadow
work and inner child lore
we must also mention ancrestral wounds
and that time my aunt called me a “whore.”

Thinking maybe he had been alone all this time, he was delighted to discover another who understood… But time would tell a different story from the warm, glowing fable young bumble painted upon spotting a comrade among the greedy swam.

I got home from school to find him storming about the house, drunk again.

We are all just people trying to figure it out, trying to live another moment, to feel a little deeper, climb a little higher, catch our breath. We are all the same.

His eyes closed, lips puckered, and he twitched from his ears to his knees before he muttered, “Let us speak no more of such things.”

I had no idea what accident Hatter spoke of, or that he had brothers at all.

I sat in uncertain silence, trying to remember my interview questions when suddenly, with a wild gleam in his eye, Hatter began to twitch. He let out a hysterical giggle as his body shook and shivered in waves.

I’m angry, but they say I’m so sweet.

Lighthearted loneliness...
Guarding the cards never solved anything.
Stand on your own two feet
But don't be afraid of strangers.

But what I didn’t expect was for the monsters to grow. I didn’t expect the saviors and heroes to turn on me. The monsters crawled out from under the bed and waltzed right into my new apartment.

On the shelf under my books and herbs

is a rose gold stick of wax.

I’m becoming, and it’s a messy job.

Tones of vanilla and tobacco teased the air wherever she wandered. Irresistible.

Unlock me. Show me the way to speak the right words - the ones that will share my inner world and bring the floating philosophy down to earth.

To the angel weeping in the willows, I've got a message just for you. Take it to heart, if you like, because I've carefully formed each and every line as a gift for your sweet soul. If it doesn't tickle your fancy, that's okay too. Just leave this letter knowing that you are loved. You are important in this world. Know that these words were written with kind intentions, wishing you well and promising you deserve it.

Letting go of what’s been done to me isn’t the same as letting go of the people still going through hard times. I adore you. I’m here for you. I’ll do my best to share love and happiness, with the hope that it can brighten these difficult times for you and give you hope for your own future, because this hard time really won’t last forever.

Even when I had the nightmares before, I rarely screamed out loud. I've never screamed so beautifully. It echoed in the room for a few minutes, my terror lingering as I shook and cried, curled up in a little ball around the cat, my back pressed against my husband. I focused on his breathing until I could find my own.

You’ll have to excuse my trust issues, they get in the way sometimes. But, like always in life, the way that I see the world says more about me than it does about you.

These are things I wish someone had told me when I was lonely. It's what I say to myself during lonely moments, now that I understand that I am not the way that I feel. I am who I am, no more and no less.

He was floating, gliding with grace before touching right back down in a sometimes-playful-sometimes-frustrated dance of life.

I walked just at the water’s edge, as I often do on beaches, glancing at the waves every split second- I know better than to turn my back on the trickster Ocean. As much as I love Her, I’m not a fool. She can be cold and cruel and her waters show no mercy if you’ve forgotten your respect. Still, I’m new to this land and I don’t know the rules of the sea, so despite my looking often, I had no idea I was in danger…

And that’s when an old man cried out after me, “be careful,” he shouted.

In the sweetest morning meditations, I always find myself pondering these days of my childhood spent with my greatest hero.