180) The Salvation of Eden, Chapter 16 -- Kohra gets intoxicated
He gestured towards the mug she was now holding. “Drrrink! Tis d’nectarrr o’ d’gods, y’know. Drrrrink! An’ we talk about death.”
Death?
179) The Salvation of Eden, Chapter 15 -- An old friend, and a new one
Stupid Silver Lady. Lenny didn’t even want to think about her anymore. She didn’t care where that woman was, as long as it wasn’t here.
178) The Salvation of Eden, Chapter 14 -- The Silver Lady
Lenny, finding it impossible to produce coherent speech, said nothing, busy as she was in that moment praying that the earth would swallow her whole.
177) The Salvation of Eden, Chapter 13 -- Snakey & Squirrelly
This wasn’t the first time Lenny had caused them to make a quick exit. He figured he’d find out the whole story on the road. It was probably stealing something, lighting something on fire, or trying to saddle and ride some pigs. (Yes, she did that. Twice.)
176) The Salvation of Eden, Chapter 12 -- Lenny's Surprising Wisdom on Surviving in a Foreign Land
“You can’t just make up a lie on the spot!” Kohra protested. “It won’t be believable!”
Lenny fired off, “I’m Wilma Featherstein, from Carding’s Corners, I work in the Pale Boar Inn as a bartender. I’m Jessica Smithson, from High Ridge; I work on the Kempton’s Hog Farm, about three miles outside of town, right along the banks of the Spokane River. I’m Bonnie Billingsley, from Jordanville; I’m on a research trip, studying the migratory patterns of rare butterflies.”
175) The Salvation of Eden, Chapter 11 -- A Different Way to Fly
How in the Hells were they going to get out of this? Would they ever be safe? And what happens if you’re being chased for so long that you just really, REALLY have to go to the bathroom?
174) The Salvation of Eden, Chapter 10 -- Goo Zombies
Kohra bolted out of her chair. Dominic flung open the door and…they stared. What was happening outside was impossible.
173) The Salvation of Eden, Chapter 9 -- Good Things Coming to an End
She smiled inwardly, imagining living in a little cabin in the woods, listening to the wind, watching the sky, making potions, having chipmunk friends drop in for tea.
172) The Salvation of Eden, Chapter 8 -- The Present and the Past
The chipmunk raised his teacup for a cheers, downed it, then pointed rather pointedly his cup. Kohra noticed that the refill came from a wine jug, not the teapot.
The critter made a brief chittering sound and flicked his tail.
“You said it, Faeron,” Mcklein shook his head sadly. “If only we all lived like animals.”
171) The Salvation of Eden, Chapter 7 -- Old Man McKiller
Kohra’s first moments of awareness suggested that she was stretched out on the softest bed, with the softest blanket, and felt as comfortable as ever in her life. Yawning, stretching, she opened her eyes. She was sleeping on the bare wood floor, although she did have a soft, thin cotton blanket. Sitting up, she looked around. Her pillow looked like a rock. She poked it with her finger. It was a rock.
170) Hallowe'en, Ancestors, and War: One small way you can take action
For Hallowe’en this year, I decided to start a new tradition, in the spirit of Dia de los Muertos, a personal ritual of honouring my ancestors at midnight tonight, and welcoming them back into my life. I am humbled at their sacrifice and strength, and I am proud to have done my part in breaking the cycles of trauma, violence, and more trauma that result from such horrific experiences as war.
169) The despair you are feeling right now: Dead children, bombed hospitals, the lies of tyranny in a dying world, and the crushing hopelessness of “What the hell can I DO about any of this?”
What can we do, in the midst of a genocide? What can we do, in the midst of tyranny that’s been happening, and strengthening, since before we were born? We can we do, in a world that burns its own living flesh, due to the greed of the most-privileged minority who clamour for ever-more wealth and power?
None of us want this.
168) The Salvation of Eden, Chapter 6 -- Rainy day convos
Dominic felt his frustration rising. SHE was the one who needed to practice. If it came to an emergency, SHE would be the weak link in the chain. If they got attacked by anything, they were completely dependent on him.
He just couldn’t understand her sometimes.
167) Thanks Mom: Intergenerational Wisdom, Part 2 -- Friendship and Community
I am coming to realize that this Tale of Aloneness was never actually true, and that what made me feel alone was simply Shame, not the reality of being disconnected from people.
When I look at my life from a different angle, then that same passage of time that seemed bereft of social connections was, in fact, RICH with relationships!
Realizing this has given me a sense of almost something like awe…
166) Thanks Mom: Intergenerational Wisdom, Part 1 -- Professor Dolderman
I want to share with you what is perhaps the most beautiful inheritance of wisdom that has passed through the generations of my family, and it’s one of the things I’m both proudest of and most grateful for in my life.
165) The Salvation of Eden: Chapter 5 -- Dominic
“We can do this, Kohra. We’ll find out what’s going on. We’ll get through this. We will.” He cleared his throat, wiping his eyes. “You and me both.”
“And a snake that watches me sleep,” Kohra grimaced.
164) From Shitty-ness to Well-ness, Part 17: "Feeling Seen"
Being socially interdependent is built right into our DNA. It’s our existential evolutionary heritage; it’s the Wisdom of our Ancestors, shaping our very essence over the generations, giving us our strengths and the abilities we rely on for resilience in an often-harsh world.
163) From Shitty-ness to Well-ness, Part 16: The Final Step to Rational Self-analysis; Sub-section 4 -- Eating Better
With cooking, there are a few basic heuristics, that can REVOLUTIONIZE your cooking. Without becoming an expert, without memorizing a bunch of stuff, without following a bunch of recipes, you can still turn yourself from a frozen-pizza type of cook, to “Hey! This is really good!” type of cook.
162) From Shitty-ness to Well-ness, Part 16 - The Final Step to Rational Self-analysis; Sub-section 3 -- The Life-Altering Sorcery of Combining CONTEXT with Competence
The more precise you can get, in terms of the behaviours you need to undertake in order to accomplish your goals, the better. Because, once you have precisely identified The Things you need to Do, then, as illustrated above, you can pull the precise CONTEXTUAL levers that you need, in order to make Doing The Thing into the default, the Thing that is practically the easiest to do in that situation.
161) From Shitty-ness to Well-ness, Part 16: The Final Step to Rational Self-analysis; Sub-section 2 -- The Power of Context
The thing to emphasize for effective goal pursuit is emphatically NOT “taking personal responsibility.” While not COMPLETELY unimportant (obviously), this whole “make your bed” mantra is only a tiny, tiny piece of the puzzle, and if over-focused on, it becomes basically a huge, shaming, blaming, counterproductive, disempowering lie.