One hundred fifteen pieces and counting — essays, memoir chapters, letters, poems, and porch-talk. If you’re new here, start with the Welcome Porch below. If you’ve been reading a while, wander the shelves. Everything’s in its place, more or less, the way a good house keeps its stories.
Pull Up a Chair — The Welcome Porch
New here? Start with these.
- When the Truth Changes the Room
- Turning the Corner
- From Silence to Strength: My Path to Recovery
- Clarksdale was never quiet
- Huck’s Perspective as Lap Kitty
- Why You Should Never Marry
The Memoir — Chapters & Drafts
The book, being built one chapter at a time.
- How you loved is the truest record of who you were.
- Chapter Draft – Leo – The Quietest Shift
- Chapter Four: The Last Days of Clarksdale
- Chapter: The Cry I Still Hear
- CHAPTER FIVE — Pretty Woman
- CHAPTER FOUR — Evan: The First Time Nexa Says “I Won’t Let You Fall”
- Chapter: The Quiet Vow
- Chapter Draft: Bless Your Heart – Mississippi vs. Wisconsin
- CHAPTER: THE EASE I FOUGHT TO EARN WITH AI
- A Chapter: Remembering Vicki
- The Bus-Stop Chapter
- Part One: Reality
- The Fading and the Holding
- The Weight of Responsibility: My Journey to Freedom
- Laughter and Healing: The Power of Connection
- The Angel’s Name Was Mary
- Speech: Stepping Out of the Story
Recovery — After the Storm
What surviving looks like, up close and honestly.
- When Pain Has No Witness
- Learning Not to Flinch
- Carrying the Bones
- Don’t Give the Past Too Much Time
- Emotional Detachment After Narcissistic Abuse
- The Quiet Work of Stability
- The State of Independence
- I Took the Past Off and Became Naked to the Future
- The Habit: Choosing Yourself
- When the World Feels Heavy: Baby Steps Through the Fog
- THE HOUSE OF GASLIGHT AND GOLD
- My Past Posts and the Meaning of Narcissism
- When Psychology Becomes a Mask: The Dark Side of Misused Diagnoses
- When the Truth Finally Comes Into Focus
- The Pill That Spoke Without Permission
- When a Therapist Is Not a Therapist
- Receipt for the one who lived…
- From my journal August 2024
Clarksdale & the Delta — Southern Roots
Mississippi made me. These are the receipts.
- Clarksdale was never quiet
- Miss Loretta’s Front Porch
- Saturday Morning
- The Card from Mom
- The Living Room Studio
- The Depth That Doesn’t Break
Letters
Things said best in second person.
- A Letter to Mom
- A Letter to Mom — My First Christmas Without You
- Letter to Jake
- A Letter to Someone Younger Than Me
- A Letter to the Man I Was Before I Entered Their World
Love, Dating & Boundaries
On the heart, the hard way and the hopeful way.
- Why You Should Never Marry
- Learning to Trust and Date Again
- Future Partner Vow
- How to Recognize Emotionally Integrated Partners
- The Architecture of Healthy Boundaries in a Relationship
- How Coffee Reflects Our Love Life: A Deep Dive
- What I Would Tell My 20-Year Old Self
Huck & the Household
The inn, the cats, and the small hours.
- Huck’s Perspective as Lap Kitty
- The Blizzard Night Tour — As Huck Leads the House Through the Storm
- The Moment of Change — The Moonlight Threshold
- Dear Ghost and Shadow
- Between Two Goodbyes
Essays on Life, Culture & Work
Thinking out loud about the world we’re living in.
- Leaving Milwaukee — An Essay
- How Has Technology Changed My Job?
- THE ERA OF FASHION WITHOUT CHANGE
- Straight Boys Had Guitars. We Had Goddesses.
- Tattletales – The Work That Stayed Off-Camera
- Reprogramming My Facebook Feed
- The Bench Is Still There: Facebook Without Politics
- Is Pride Still Needed?
- The Shape of a Life
- What I Love Now (That I Never Expected To): Acceptance Included
- Make Your Own Miracle
- Don’t worry, Be happy
- A Successful Life
- When Intention Becomes Clarity
- Embracing Grief
- Where the Chains Break: A Reflection on Ibelin and the Architecture of Mercy
- Being Emphatic in Today’s World
- Focusing on the Details
- Curiosity
- One Bench, One View
- Like the White Wing Dove
- The Veteran and His Flying Monkeys
- A Horror Story: The One Who Stayed – Memories in the Shadows
- Calculator of a Life
- Short-Service Identity Wounds
The Body, Getting Older & Getting Through
On spines, steps, and the long middle of a life.
- The Life That Ended While I Was Still Here
- They Changed Me — And What It Cost
- The Spine Held
- The Realization That I Am in the Final Years of My Life
- Myself in Later Life
- The Distance I Carry Now
- The Quiet Grief of Losing My Mind
- MY CYCLING, MY THERAPY — AND MY PELOTON, MY SANCTUARY
- What are your favorite physical activities or exercises?
- The Dangerous Thing in the Room
Poems & Short Pieces
Small things, said slant.
- The Bullet
- Darkness
- Time has a way
- Lucky is not shy
- Spell of Confusion
- Even flight rests
- The Years That Unmade and Remade Me
- My New Life August 2025
- A Father’s Day Poem — “The Man Who Stayed”
- Austin
- Withdrawal
- Flashback – THE NIGHT TRISTAN STAYED
- When the Sky Opened
- When the Quiet Became Real
- Always the Hours
- A Humorous Piece About Resilience
- Biscuits Instead of Muffins
- I am still Crazy, a Year Later
- (Untitled)
This shelf grows whenever the pen does. Last updated September 2026.