Love flourishes where the heart settles

About the comfort of familiar places

Photo by micheile henderson on Unsplash

Hi everyone,

We hope the first days of May have been gentle on your mind and generous with your time to write, read, and breathe.

Today, I want to share with you a brief reflection about that old saying stating, “home is where the heart is.”

I’d rather say “home is where the heart settles.”

Back in 2024, Alchemy Publications author,

Eki

, published a story on Engage titled: Where Is Grandma’s True Home?

Eki’s story felt so relatable, and there’s a paragraph in there that tugs at my heartstrings every time I read it:

“I looked at the sparse houses behind the mountains and thought of my grandmother, of that brief journey we took, and felt a deep, inexplicable loneliness well up inside me.”

Yesterday, I passed by my Grandmother’s old house. Grandma is no longer with us. Her house was sold and has been renovated, but it still holds a bit of the magic of my childhood memories.

I lived there for almost eighteen years, and since then, I’ve been all over the world, but somehow a large chunk of my heart has settled in that familiar place, somewhere between the staircase and the Japanese rose…

Zenite mid-month highlights

Here are a few stories we published on Zenite that captured our readers’ attention and hearts this month:

Mom’s House of Grit by

Eki

A fierce, moving meditation on legacy, resilience, and the invisible scaffolding mothers build.

A Pedagogy of Small Steps by

Francis Laleman

A thoughtful exploration of learning — not in leaps, but in steady, meaningful increments.

I Heart Humanity by

Daniel Williams

Tender, poetic, and necessary — a reminder of the small, shining things that make us who we are.

The Multiple Factors Collapsing the Film Industry by

Ashely L. Crouch

Update on Jocelyn’s suspension

Now, a bit of good news:

Jocelyn Millis

account has been reinstated.

As we suspected, the suspension was just a hiccup in the great work the Trust & Safety team does to provide readers the best experience possible.

Jocelyn’s profile photo and username were probably snatched by fraudsters to create a spam account, leading to a false flag, leading to the wrong account being suspended.

Thanks to those of you who reached out with kindness and concern. Your voices mattered. Jocelyn is back, a little shaken, but deeply grateful, and we’re looking forward to her next piece.

A reminder to everyone

If something similar ever happens to you, don’t stay silent. Reach out directly to Medium Support and the Trust & Safety team, and let us know as well.

We’re in this together.

The Zenite Team