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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

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Theme · Aliveness

32 pieces · Clear filters

01
Poetry1 min readSeptember 12, 2026

The Inner Core

Beneath the layers of coping,

traumaalivenessembodiment
02
Poetry1 min readSeptember 10, 2026

A Wild Man

A wild man enjoys climbing a tree.

alivenessembodimenttransformation
03
Poetry1 min readcelebratoryIntensity 3/5July 27, 2026

Levitating Light

Builds a constellation of qualities—from presence and groundedness through grief, play, intimacy, and service—whose accumulation sketches a life of integrated, ordinary aliveness.

alivenessattentiontransformationrest and enoughnessconsciousness and perceptioncreative courage
Mode lyric meditation · practical framework · somatic inquiryMotifs light and darkness · mountain · water and flow · eye and seeing
04
Essay1 min readintimateIntensity 2/5July 20, 2026

Murder by the Name

Examines naming as a necessary violence that reduces living complexity, asking whether a writer can use language without mistaking categories and stories for the reality they conceal.

attentioncreativityalivenessimperfection and practiceprojection and fantasywholeness through inclusion
Mode reflective essay · philosophical inquiry · relational inquiryMotifs name as blade · grasping eye · horizon beyond language
05
Poetry1 min readcontemplativeIntensity 1/5July 17, 2026

The “Heart” Beat

Challenges the reduction of the heart to a pump by tracing the circulatory system’s vortices, neurons, reciprocity, and distributed intelligence. Biological complexity becomes an argument for receiving and giving as simultaneous forms of participation.

embodimentattentionalivenesscreative courageconsciousness and perceptionembodied awareness
Mode lyric meditation · philosophical inquiryMotifs heart and pulse
06
Collection3 min readunflinchingIntensity 5/5The Arc of Becoming · 5July 14, 2026

Continue Here - The Arc of Becoming

Brings the arc of trauma recovery to a turn where the past remains real but no longer dictates the future. Safety arises through changed perception, participation, relational presence, and the recognition that nothing essential is missing.

transformationattentionalivenessconsciousness and perceptioncreative couragealiveness through participation
Mode curated sequence · philosophical inquiryMotifs mountain and arc · nothing missing · ordinary ground
07
Poetry1 min readgroundedIntensity 3/5July 1, 2026

Coming Alive

Defines becoming as accumulated practice rather than arrival. Repetition makes pain more precise and attention more stable until fear, uncertainty, and reality can be met with courage, rhythm, and presence.

transformationalivenessattentionimperfection and practicealiveness through participationcreative courage
Mode lyric meditation · prose poem · practical frameworkMotifs repetitions and rhythm · noise becoming signal · center and balance
08
Essay2 min readcontemplativeIntensity 3/5June 29, 2026

Teachers of Discomfort

Recasts disappointment, anger, sadness, confusion, exhaustion, and joy as forms of information whose discomfort can refine boundaries, perception, and contact with reality.

attentionalivenesstransformationcapacity for discomfortconsciousness and perceptioncontact with reality
Mode reflective essay · philosophical inquiryMotifs teachers and lessons · alarm and signal · weather of emotion
09
Collection7 min readgroundedIntensity 5/5June 27, 2026

Elements of Aliveness

Surveys the nonlinear practices and experiences that transformed a life organized around trauma. Across embodiment, relationship, ritual, creativity, and repeated identity deaths, grief emerges as the solvent that made every other change possible.

familyalivenessembodimentimperfection and practicecreative couragefear and courage
Mode curated sequence · practical frameworkMotifs funerals and ashes · ocean of pain · firm ground
10
Poetry2 min readcelebratoryIntensity 4/5June 11, 2026

Aliveness Manifesto

Defines aliveness as honest participation in present reality rather than intensity, achievement, or the completion of healing—and calls for choosing contact again and again without a finish line.

alivenessattentionrelationshipsfear and courageconsciousness and perceptioncontact with reality
Mode lyric meditation · philosophical inquiry · manifestoMotifs dance · finish line · open hands
11
Poetry1 min readtenderIntensity 3/5May 26, 2026

Worshiping Absence

Shows how trauma orients attention toward unavailable people, missing care, and imagined completion. The worship of absence preserves the original wound while making available life difficult to notice or receive.

alivenessgrieftraumaabandonment and attachmentauthenticity over performancecreative courage
Mode lyric meditation · cultural critiqueMotifs empty altar · unavailable figure · turned-away gaze
12
Poetry1 min readdefiantIntensity 1/5May 25, 2026

Ecstasy Now

Turns toward the inner voice of insufficiency as a lonely part needing companionship, locating ecstasy not in achievement but in ending the war with oneself.

alivenesscreativityrest and enoughnessshame and worthinessabandonment and attachment
Mode lyric meditation · prose poem · relational inquiryMotifs inner companion · war and embrace · present ecstasy