How much of yourself can you give someone before neither of you knows how to stop?
Tag: family
The Warped Mirror We Inherit
One generation drinks. The next explains the drinking. The next explains the explaining. Everybody feels more evolved, and somehow the family’s still f-ed up.
I Wore the Names: What Was Never Mine to Carry
If letting go feels like betrayal, maybe that’s because someone taught her true blue love means holding what hurts even after it starts to burn.
The Advice Her Life Never Meant to Give
I admire my momma for the life she built for us, even as I question how to honor her love without making her total sacrifice my only blueprint for motherhood.
Scarcity Theater: What Was Never Mine to Fix
There’s a point in grief where reflection curdles into rumination. The what-ifs look like insight, but most of the time they’re just guilt in disguise.
I Edited a Book So Dad Would Finally Hear Me
I treated Dad like something to be fixed. I thought if I got the words right, he would be too. I didn’t know how to ask, so I wrote it like it was already true.
Permission Over Proof: Cutting Pages, Courting Agents
Small acts of disregard, stacked, become an avalanche. I need permission over proof, to finish editing p.iii, and to get this manuscript in an agent’s hands.
Holding a Firefly: The Chapter That Says Yes
The chapter that undoes me isn’t about loss. It’s joy—a memory glowing after everything fades. Editing it is like holding a firefly without crushing its light.
For the Kids Who Didn’t Win
This isn’t a recovery story. It’s about what’s left for the kids who didn’t win, who loved someone who didn’t make it. We deserve to stop carrying the blame.
2018: the Art of Looking Away
New-gf glow and sun-soaked selfies hid Dad’s first subtle slide. I ignored my gut, but Ch. 19 won’t let me look away from the skid marks I pretended not to see.