introspection

  • Whose House?

    There was a woman living in my house who looked exactly like me. I noticed her before I saw her. That is how these things usually begin. Not with apparitions standing at the foot of the bed or doors slamming themselves in the middle of the night. Nothing so theatrical. It began with a coffee…

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  • The Reader

    Some people are merely reading the chapters of their life as they are exposed, not everyone can be a writer. There is something unsettling about realizing you have been holding the book upside down. You thought the blank pages meant you were supposed to fill them. You thought the pen belonged to you. It never…

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  • The Conference Room

    There is no time to sit idle when the world is spinning round and round. She arrived carrying a suitcase, a laptop, and a mind that had no intention of staying where her body had been placed. The hotel lobby buzzed with polished shoes gliding across marble floors, rolling suitcases announcing new arrivals, and conversations…

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  • Borrowed Things

    Maybe it is just boredom that has brought me here, tired of human suffering. Not because suffering is unusual. Because it repeats itself with remarkable dedication. I sat watching people today and couldn’t decide what they were actually chasing. A better job. A bigger house. Someone else’s attention. An argument they intended to win before…

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  • The heat had already settled over Texas before noon. Not the kind of heat that asked permission. The kind that wrapped itself around your shoulders, settled into your skin, and reminded you that July had arrived exactly when it intended to. Fresh-cut grass drifted lazily through the afternoon air, mixing with the scent of warm…

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  • There is a kingdom that does not appear on google maps. No passport will get you there. No road sign points in its direction. You don’t accidentally wander into it. You build it. Brick by brick. Sentence by sentence. Lie by lie. The people who lived there called it truth. Everyone else simply called it…

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  • There was a town built entirely of mirrors. Not the kind hanging on walls. The kind people carried around with them. Everywhere they went, they stared into those mirrors, studying themselves, admiring themselves, defending themselves, explaining themselves. And because they were always looking at themselves, they rarely saw what was happening around them. The strangest…

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  • Rainy days always change the world. People don’t notice it because they are busy running from it. They pull jackets over their heads. They hurry toward doorways. They retreat into coffee shops and living rooms. Windshield wipers begin their hypnotic dance. Parking lots empty. Sidewalks lose their audience. The world becomes quieter. More honest. Rain…

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  • There comes a season in life when you must disappear. Not because you are broken. Not because you are angry. Not because you hate people. You disappear because the next version of yourself requires silence to be built. Most people misunderstand disappearing. They think it means isolation. Depression. Giving up. It isn’t. It’s construction. The…

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  • The Things We Carry

    I used to think I was a cactus. Turns out I wasn’t. I was just a stubborn plant trapped in bad circumstances. Back then I lived in a dented coffee can sitting on the floorboard of an old eighteen-wheeler. The man who carried me around wasn’t much different than I was. We were both things…

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