family
Family can be our support system. Or they can be part of the problem. All about the complicated, loving, and difficult relationship with us and the ones who love us.
A Time to Die
When I look at my child, I think of my wife and how I killed her. It wasn’t an accident or an incident precipitated by a catalyst of rage. It was premeditated. A necessity birthed from a vile idea that my wife tossed around loosely until it consumed her every waking moment - that we needed to be free of this world. This thought culminated with me clutching our daughter and tearing into the forest to save ourselves. She had lost her way, devolving into a horror that I no longer recognized, leaving me with no option but to choose between my wife or child.
By Jacob Lindsay5 years ago in Psyche
Somewhere Along the Colorado River
I am sitting at the kitchen table four feet from the sink. It is early morning, and I am the only person present. It is quiet in a loose sense. The only sounds I hear are that of the windbreaker I am wearing, brushing against itself, and the bottom of my coffee cup meeting the table. An attachment begins to form between the sounds and me.
By Ana Martinovic5 years ago in Psyche
Healing is Selfish
Healing is selfish. It has to be. I would also argue that suffering is selfish, and if you believe in the law of polarity you’d probably agree. This idea, that healing is selfish, began with a term I discovered a few years ago when starting my healing journey that I now identify with. The term is codependency.
By Jessica Jones5 years ago in Psyche
Second Life
The wind was sharp as knives against the bare parts of his face. The man tugged at the loose hanging edges of his scarf, tightening it. With every step the blistering cold night air pierced its way through the multiple layers of clothing he had tightly packaged himself in. Her could feel his fingers and toes start to burn despite the handmade knit socks and gloves he wore. His mother had made them for him two christmases ago.
By Beverly Tenhagen5 years ago in Psyche
Leaves of Three
The white cane was pointing toward a small Moleskine journal in the middle of the sidewalk, as if they’d been placed there, combined. Felix looked around for their owner. Cars moved up and down the street. He saw a woman scan the traffic and hail her Uber, but then nothing.
By 5 years ago in Psyche
Violent Silence
It was his third time at my house that day. Each time was more aggressive, angrier and more violent. I was beginning to fear him but more so fear for him. We were not strangers. I knew his patterns and techniques of manipulations, but he was bound to come across someone else. Someone with a fuse as short as his. I knew what he wanted, and I knew who he wanted, but my patience was wearing thin as he continued to bang on the door with my six month old trying to sleep. My husband wasn’t home so reluctantly I went downstairs to my mother’s basement apartment to tell her “He’s out here again.” We paused for a brief moment to see who would fold first. Would she finally come up and give him the ten dollars he was asking for, or would I return to the door, for the third time empty handed.
By Nicole Franklin5 years ago in Psyche
The Experiment
Lucas pushed open the heavy oak door and found himself in an ornate foyer, glowing with sunlight from the vaulted windows opposite him. Despite the room’s magnificence, it held an unsettling stillness that set Lucas on edge. For the hundredth time, he studied the partially crumpled pamphlet in his right hand to make sure he had the correct address. 824 Walden, this should be it, he thought, though he was still doubtful. The trials he signed up for were usually in university or office buildings, not mansions in the middle of nowhere.
By Tom Hummer5 years ago in Psyche
Actaeon
‘He didn’t have to read it.’ That was her consolation after Julian’s…accident. Merging onto I-91, Katelyn didn’t know what else to say. It wasn’t her fault—it couldn’t be. When she received the letter eight days ago, she couldn’t possibly have known what would happen. But her father? Could he have known? When he wrote, ‘I’m dying, Kati. These will be my last words to you,’ did he also know how she would choose, or what it would do to Julian?
By Robert Bailey5 years ago in Psyche
