They call it a thunderclap. I did not ease into this headache. It detonated my brain. People say dying is easy compared to living honestly. I didn’t yet know if that was true, but I was about to find out what the popular idiom dying is easy actually means. One moment I was upright and functional. The next I was on the floor, blinded, gripping my skull, vomiting, then gone. When I came to, my brain still roared. I did what everyday life in 2022 prescribes for the […]
This morning I went to meditate and realized I only had my fancy candle left. Not the regular candle. Not the “this is fine for a Tuesday” candle. The special one. The one I’ve been saving like it’s a limited edition relic from a lost civilization. The candle equivalent of good china. Normally I light a candle before I start meditation. Then I blow it out when I’m done. It’s a small ritual and a comfort. A tiny line in the sand between my real life and the
It was ten a.m. and you had a meeting at noon, two hours to write, or two hours to fritter away. Your bathroom mirror quoted the David Sedaris Masterclass for motivation in black glass pen cursive. Reading it, you hung a thin striped robe on the back of the door before pulling on cotton leggings and the same black tank you’ve worn for thirty years. It’s the softest thing you own. In the kitchen you made yourself a latte. It tasted like permission. You told yourself you’d write