Stream of Consciousness
A Cartography of Becoming
We all carry maps, whether we realize it or not. Some are straightforward: the neighborhoods we grew up in, the routes to our favorite coffee shops, the big moments we counted down to. Other maps exist under the surface, invisible but stubborn—etched by memories, heartaches, and the times life knocked us sideways.
By Samantha Segalas-Shaw2 months ago in Humans
“A dress for poor people!” my daughter said. But at the party, when I walked in, she fainted...
I spent the entire night sewing my daughter's wedding gown, stitch by painful stitch, without even stopping to rest my eyes. Each needle pass was a memory. Every thread, a promise. The
By Umar Farooq2 months ago in Humans
I Owe It All to the Slender Man
(If you'll look to your right, you'll see a corkboard on the wall. It's suspiciously empty, for a corkboard. Don't worry; it's gonna fill up fast. At the right edge of the board, which we'll call Point B, I'll pin a photograph of the present. My apartment, my partner, my cat, my job -- my life as it is now. At the left, Point A, I'll pin an illustration of the infamous Slender Man. Yes, that one. Please don't laugh; I wasted a lot of printer ink on this drawing.)
By Rebekah Conard2 months ago in Humans
The Architecture of My Walls
The Architecture of My Walls I never meant to build walls. I meant to build safety. It started as a boundary, then a fence, then a fortress—constructed out of every promise that broke, every hand that stung when it should have soothed, every version of love that came with terms and conditions I didn’t agree to but signed anyway. You don’t wake up one day inside a fortress; you wake up and realize you have spent years mortaring bricks while calling it “healing.”
By Catherine Ivey2 months ago in Humans
Good Faith in a Bad-Faith World
The Collapse Of Civil Discourse Everywhere you look, conversation is breaking down. Words that once served as bridges are now weapons. People no longer speak to understand; they speak to win. To admit uncertainty is to invite ridicule. To ask a question is to be branded as weak or ignorant.
By Peter Thwing - Host of the FST Podcast2 months ago in Humans
The Map of All the Conversations I Never Had
I have always been the kind of person who remembers the shape of things. The outline of a face. The tilt in a voice. A doorway someone leaned against years ago. But the things I remember most clearly aren’t objects or rooms or even the people themselves. They’re the moments where I almost spoke and didn’t.
By Aspen Noble2 months ago in Humans
The X and the Treasure
There is a story that exists in almost every culture on earth. It is the story of a map, a mark, and a treasure buried beneath the ground. The map is dismissed as myth, the mark is ignored or defaced, and the treasure waits in silence for the one person patient enough to dig. I have come to see truth the same way.
By Peter Thwing - Host of the FST Podcast2 months ago in Humans
The Restoration of Order
Civilization rises or falls upon one foundation: the moral order that governs the human heart. When truth is exalted, families thrive, justice endures, and love becomes the highest expression of unity under God. When truth is abandoned, chaos fills the vacuum. The world does not collapse from external enemies first. It collapses from within, when its people forget the sacred laws that make harmony possible.
By Peter Thwing - Host of the FST Podcast2 months ago in Humans
