Ask the Apostate
How do you make peace with a life that didn't turn out the way you planned?
Stop grieving the plan and move into the house you actually built.
EssayWinding the Clock
The key, the ratchet, and the edge just short of too far: winding a house's heartbeat by feel.
Ask the ApostateIs it wrong that I'm starting to forget their voice?
The fading is the toll for keeping them in a living mind, not a recording.
EssayThe Whetstone
Water, stone, and the two-coin angle a hand comes to believe: the patient restoring of an edge.
Ask the ApostateWhy do some chores feel like prayer, even if you don't believe in anything?
The feeling isn't imported from a belief—the chore makes it.
EssayWhittling
Not making a thing but removing everything that isn't it—subtraction as the only honest move.
Ask the ApostateHow do you stop feeling guilty about something you can't take back?
Stop paying a closed account, and let the guilt change what you do next.
EssayPulling Weeds
Down at the crown where the stem meets the soil, and the small clean joy of a taproot drawn out whole.
Word, when there is word.