The dip often arrives quietly. You might be standing at the kitchen sink one Tuesday evening, watching the thin stripe […]

The shepherd mix started barking before I even saw him. A sharp, insistent volley broke across the quiet of the

The first flakes don’t fall so much as drift into view, hesitant and wandering, like they’ve lost their way. You

The cuff whirs to life on your arm, the digital numbers start their silent climb, and for a moment the

The year is tucking itself in. Outside the window, the sky hangs low and pewter, and the light vanishes earlier

The woman on the train did not look like someone at risk of a life-threatening blood clot. Mid‑30s, hiking backpack

The first time I poured a bowl of murky, slightly cloudy water at the base of my houseplants, I felt

The first time I really heard a carrot crack, I was not in a peaceful mountain cabin, or at some

On a cool, wet morning, the kind that makes the windows fog and the world smell like rain and soil,

The pan was already warm, a shallow shimmer of golden olive oil catching the afternoon light, when Lena paused. The

The woman at the farm stand curled her fingers around a small brown nut, held it out to me, and

The first time you really notice how loud the world has become is often in the quietest place you can

The first time I heard the hiss, I thought something was going very, very wrong. A quiet kitchen, a long

The first frost of winter had just begun to lace the hedgerows when the rumours started circling in lay-bys, workshops,

The scarf had been hanging on the hook by the door for so long it had started to feel like

The year is exhaling. You can feel it in the way the air changes at dusk, in the slower blinking

The tiles click softly against the wooden table, a delicate percussion that sounds almost like rain on a cabin roof.

The first silver hair always seems to arrive on an ordinary day. Maybe you’re leaning close to the bathroom mirror,

The air at the end of the month always feels a little different, doesn’t it? As if time itself is

The first time I realized something was wrong, it was the second week of poor sleep. Not the kind you

The first time I poured a cup of plain table salt down a stubborn, gurgling drain, I did it more