Talking to Ghosts and Finding Words for Spirituality

Human beings thrive off connection. Most of us have spoken to the dead at various points in our life, telling them we miss them, we’re thinking of them, we hope they’re at peace. We don’t ignore the possibility our loved ones still hear us. Many have encountered the paranormal: ghosts, uncanny dreams, and impossibilities. The …

You Can Actually Trust These 15 Affirmations About Trust

I can’t read minds, all I can do is trust a person’s words and ask for clarification if I’m unsure of my interpretation. Evidence of trustworthiness is valuable to recognize. I don’t have to trust everyone all the time, but it’s unsustainable to never trust anyone. There are many different levels of trust, a small …

Learning About Learning About Learning

Accepting the process of learning: difficult at times, but at other times, easy, natural, instinctive, simple. The carrying out of life is fraught with inconsistencies and surreal coincidences and I don’t understand any of it but I’ve still learnt. When I’m older, I might better understand the circumstantial variables, today I merely need to be …

Honour in Uncomfortable Topics

Some would say the topics I write about are at times too personal, that I shouldn’t expose so much. All is interconnected— it’s time to heal the world’s relationship with talking about trauma and mental illness. My part in this is tiny and insignificant, but it’s mine. Being proactive in advocacy of destigmatization as a …

Jaybird Joy

For a warm moment the pressure lifts. I’m learning to allow myself the full experience of happiness, without giving all my attention away to intrusive thoughts. They’ve been heard out, accepted as part of my reality, and now it’s time to let go. I’m at peace watching birds out my window. Joy will come regularly …

Psychological Healing: Experiences with the Alchemical Crow

We’ve all known catastrophe. The apocalypse exists within Caput Corvi, the symbol of a decapitated crow. Our internal reasoning cannot keep up with the crises of our circumstances. The crow forces us to change so that we may learn to begin doing so willingly. Patterns repeat, break, transform. Life is a series of cycles, some …

Alligator Rocking Chair: a Poem [CW: CSA]

Uncountable, unfathomable, unimaginable, insurmountable, I cannot inventory this lifespan. Seated in glory, never damn the molted skins sloughed, succeeded—

Measuring Time Against Action

Our increments of time hedge philosophy. We witness credible evidence of effect but the measurement of our experience is an instrument, the mechanical clock and internal clock alike. My birthday is a few weeks before the Gregorian calendar’s New Years Day, so my gauge of a year's time is fairly traditional though I’m motivated by …

Encouraged (Isolation)

My restraining order against her has been expired for years and I don’t need another one, yet she still haunts my life and fosters discouragement within me. How to rebuke discouragement? Are we driven by praise? Pride? Regret? Why keep trying? What is discouragement? Perhaps a mild paranoia, a sense of shame, embarrassment— cures are …

Grooming

[CW: CSA] Children are influenced by the subtle and loud alike. Most adults are aware of this powerful adaptive energy, the vulnerability of such malleability, and some use it to their sickening advantage. Children don’t understand. Without their own experience of the world, children are heavily influenced by their guardians and caretakers. Parents, relatives, teachers, …