We are all loved.

There is much more peace in ignoring bad things & bad people. More goodness is on its way.

Well being of a family or well being of a community should not & cannot succumb to the selfish ambitions or desires of others.

Our peace is worth maintaining … Tell more people to f*ck off.

We rise high & fall short in so many ways. If we can communicate love well with or without words, often, I believe it all washes out for the best. Dads who do this well & often are accomplished & a blessing. Cheers, gentlemen.

I remember the day I grew out of rumours. I stopped caring about the ones involving me, & I did my best to stop dealing them myself. I couldn’t let shitty people continue to influence me. I had to be better. I already was.

It took 23 years after those funerals, & a whole lot of self sabotage because of those funerals, to learn endings are acceptable, we can all handle endings with practice, & we can find ways to live a life where endings can ultimately be okay. Where endings can be celebrated instead of feared.

It took me 10 years playing catch up to feel whole. Feeling whole makes it simpler to begin spending the next 10 years being more grateful & settling in. It's time to take less & reward more everyone & everything keeping me alive so long.

Leaving the church saved my soul.

If joy or feelings of happiness were measured on a scale of zero to one hundred, my meter would start at or below zero every single day.

Sobering up is less about looking at myself as the victim of alcohol & more about coming to terms with the fears, anxieties, or insecurities pushing myself into spaces of discontent & self harm.

I’m no longer joyfully single. I’m joyfully whatever.

Nobody hates you. I’m not going anywhere.

I don’t miss you. Except for when I do.

Some of us skip church. None of us skip brunch. This is where we all get along. Eating and drinking together. On Sunday.

The hardest part about becoming more sober is losing my favorite mask.

Fuck, man.

28 essays or short writings. Non-fiction & Fiction. No locations. No names. No years. Listed 1, 2, 3, & so on. Titled each with a 1 or 2 word theme. Thank you, proactively, for choosing to engage with my words.

I'm not at all what I expected to be at 28. But I'm damn proud of who I've become chasing 28.

Originally written January 2022 following an interview for a feature.