life – My Little Hawk

go get that tattoo.

I have a tattoo of a phone number for my grandparents’ house. That was the only number I would’ve picked up and answered growing up. I hated talking on the phone! The number is no longer in use.

between always and never: going back in time

Regrettably, I lived a life full of things I want to change. But it brought me here today. So I learned to let go. But most of all, I learned that nothing compares to grief.

About Life and Uncertainty

For better or for worse, life is uncertain. It allows me to dream, as much as fear, what comes next. So there’s no way to approach it. It is a space in which life happens.

Navigating Adulthood

All my childhood, with how I held myself, I always ran ahead of time. Then, at one moment, I stopped to catch my breath, and when I wanted to start again, life had already passed me by.

Coastline in Ruin

In a tragic instant, people lost everything. It’s hard to find words to grasp the immensity of this event. Seeing the beautiful green coast I grew up in reduced to ash is heartbreaking.

Dinner with Bourdain

I’ve been reading Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential throughout the summer. So who I imagine joining me for a meal is none other than that eccentric cookie.

While I ate cake at a family gathering: Thoughts on family

I stood in the corner, a paper plate with a slice of cake in my lap. My eyes widened with confusion. Looking around me, I realized: I don’t know that many happy families.

Children’s Understanding of Grief

My godson caught me off guard with how he explained where his grandparents are. To him, it was just another version of the story. Maybe next time he’ll get with something else, until he’s old enough to understand. Children’s understanding of death and grief is the most heartbreaking oblivion there is.

Summer in Details: Fragments of Time

Sitting with the weight of a year passed, I bite into a peach, and as I trail the juice from my hand to my elbow, I try to ground myself. My hands are sticky, and I wipe them on my shirt, leaving a blotchy stain on my ribs.

“You can’t have a village without being a villager.”

Protecting our peace, while important, is not something people understand its nature and purpose to be. We use it when we can’t be bothered to do anything, really. This lack of community is part of a much larger issue, but the point still stands: we forgot how to be friends.