Read

Writing about breaking into reality.

Essays, memoir and poetry on attention, grief, belonging and aliveness. What does it take to live beyond survival and projection? How do we move towards participation and thriving?

An open journal facing the rising sun in a mountain landscape

Find a way in

Browse the archive

Explore by literary character

Form · Memoir

21 pieces · Clear filters

13
Memoir9 min readunflinchingIntensity 5/5September 23, 2025

Emotional Rape

Abuse doesn’t always leave bruises. The deepest scars I carry came from manipulation, gaslighting, and domination that no one could see. This is my attempt to name the tactics of invisible abuse so they lose their power.

traumarelationshipscreativityabuse and its aftermathprojection and fantasytruth-telling and voice
Mode autobiographical testimonyMotifs wound and scar · light and darkness
14
Memoir2 min readintimateIntensity 3/5September 19, 2025

The Love that Stayed

A reflection on how love can awaken us — not by lasting forever, but by showing us what in us is ready to heal. This piece traces the transformation of heartbreak into wholeness: how another person’s presence can open the heart, how loss can reveal self-worth, and how endings can become thresholds. It’s not a story of romantic success, but of inner…

relationshipscreativitygriefcreative courageattention as relationshipgrief as transformation
Mode autobiographical testimony · somatic inquiry · relational inquiryMotifs heart and pulse · door and threshold · ghost and mirror
15
Memoir5 min readtenderIntensity 5/5September 16, 2025

Taming the Dragon

Living with Borderline Personality Disorder felt like being chained to fire. Writing publicly about it became a way of taming that dragon — of turning intensity into clarity, and shame into voice.

traumafamilyembodimenttruth-telling and voicecreative couragefear and courage
Mode autobiographical testimony · somatic inquiryMotifs dragon · breath
16
Memoir9 min readintimateIntensity 5/5September 15, 2025

From Scarcity to Abundance, Through Hell (but gamified!)

Scarcity isn’t just about money — it’s the way trauma teaches us to live braced, small, never enough. This piece is about how I turned toward those demons and discovered that abundance isn’t about stuff — it’s about safety, wholeness, and breath.

alivenesstraumabelongingrest and enoughnessshame and worthinessplay as liberation
Mode autobiographical testimony · somatic inquiry · relational inquiryMotifs wound and scar
17
Memoir4 min readunflinchingIntensity 5/5August 22, 2025

Write it in blood if you must

Accompanies the reader through suicidal despair from the perspective of someone who survived its long recurrence. It treats surrender, truthful expression, and being witnessed as ways to remain in relationship with life when hope is unavailable.

griefcreativityembodimentcreative couragesurrender of controlattention as relationship
Mode autobiographical testimony · practical framework · philosophical inquiryMotifs blood
18
Memoir1 min readdefiantIntensity 3/5August 20, 2025

The Helm of Dustiny

Uses a pirate-themed Burning Man build as the stage for reclaiming direction after years organized by trauma and borrowed desires. The handmade helm becomes a declaration against performing, chasing, and betraying one’s own path.

transformationwholeness through inclusion
Mode autobiographical testimonyMotifs road and vehicle · dust · light and darkness
19
Memoir6 min readyearningIntensity 3/5August 11, 2025

The Eye of the Mountain

On a vision quest, I found a symbol that has guided me ever since: the eye of the mountain. This is the story of facing silence, fear, and hunger — and discovering the myths that shape our lives.

naturefamilyspiritualitycreative couragepersonal myth and initiationauthenticity over performance
Mode autobiographical testimony · practical framework · mythic narrativeMotifs mountain · eye and seeing
20
Memoir7 min readunflinchingIntensity 5/5Shock Collar · 1August 11, 2025

The Blackness of Darkness

This essay recounts my earliest experiences of physical and emotional abuse — and how those wounds shaped my nervous system, relationships, and sense of self. It’s an unflinching look at what happens when love and violence fuse in a child’s world, and how those patterns echo across a lifetime. This is not a story of blame, but of understanding — of…

traumafamilyrelationshipsabuse and its aftermathancestral and family patternsnervous-system regulation
Mode autobiographical testimony · somatic inquiry · relational inquiryMotifs light and darkness · wound and scar
21
Memoir3 min readunflinchingIntensity 5/5August 11, 2025

Deconditioning Everything I Was

Rock bottom was my altar. A broken spine became my teacher. In the ashes of exhaustion, I found ignition. This is the story of how I stopped trying to heal into safety and started living into power: how the man who once begged not to wake up learned to walk, dance, build and burn again. It’s not about crawling out of the cave; it’s about launching from…

traumafamilyembodimentidentity after traumacreative couragemeaning-making through myth
Mode autobiographical testimonyMotifs ashes and burning · cave