The Typewriter Habit of straight quotes and why curly quotes are important — Typography 101 — Most readers never notice, at least not consciously. The subconscious mind, however, is a powerful thing. Pull up any article from the Washington Post or the New York Times. Grab any book from your bookshelf. You will never find a straight quote: ' or " You will always find curly…

Construction and destruction — constructively dealing with people bent on destruction — Have you ever met that person who seems to swing around like a wrecking ball? The ones going around laying their claws into anything and everything in hopes of mass destruction? I know you have met that person. You may even be them. Regardless of whether you are a constructive…

A glance into a day in the life of those who have survived — Have you ever thought you were going to die? And I don’t mean the everyday fear of death that all humans experience. I mean, have you ever faced sudden possible death? Have you ever thought, at any moment, that you may die before the next? Has dying ever been that…

The Full Spectrum of Human Nature — Stop trying to be one extreme or the other. Stop identifying with specific traits and then chopping up the rest of you. We are not meant to be one thing, us humans. It’s unnatural. It’s not “real”. We are many things, all at the same time. I’m sorry if a…

Your choices are yours alone, just don’t lie to yourself about the choices you have — My Poppy and I were standing outside the green house. Breathing heavily, we both guzzled sweating bottles of water. I wiped the sweat from my brow as I noticed the tears forming in Poppy’s eyes. …

When love’s power shatters where it should mend, there is always a paralyzing fear of love’s end — Love, romance, sex, and intimacy — the most timeless and loved conversation of our existence. We all want it, many of us are afraid of it, no one can fully articulate it, and lifetimes have been spent trying to figure it out and explain how to find it. People kill…

A poem about death — Yesterday, you passed away, but yesterday still feels like today. It’s like that day never ended and it just keeps going in an endless loop to infinitum. Like a ghost from the past, the memories come. Are they good or are they bad? Everything is the same but it’s all…

Assets, liabilities, strengths, wounds, superpowers, and gifts — choose balance over self-destruction — Warm tears silently rolled down my icy cheeks as I counted out the thirteen hundred dollars. I knew I shouldn’t be doing it. I knew I was harming myself, allowing myself to be taken advantage of. I felt like a fool as the officer on duty had me sign the…

I know I did the right thing, the day I said goodbye — When you shield me from reality, you shield me from the truth. You lie about my destiny, so I’ll stay close to you. You look at me in numbers. You rate me every day. You spit so many riddles that they all sound the same. I’m this… I’m there… I’m that… I’m where…