The Source

They say this cemetery full, but I’d gladly help free up a spot fo’ that one,

Yes. Things fall apart. The same thing holds true in regards to events. We build the events in our lives. We furnish them with our intellect and decorate them with our emotions, but then we walk away. We never bring new energy to them, and with time, they fade and disappear from our senses. That’s what leads to the sense that time is passing; what we call ‘the present’ simply reflects where we collectively are focusing the most energy.

The younger man’s build qualified him as an ectomorph—very

Things fall apart. The same thing holds true in regards to events. We build the events in our lives. We furnish them with our intellect and decorate them with our emotions, but then we walk away. We never bring new energy to them, and with time, they fade and disappear from our senses. That’s what leads to the sense that time is passing; what we call ‘the present’ simply reflects where we collectively are focusing the most energy.

It’s one of mankind’s greatest weaknesses—the need to feel superior to others.

my spine and climb its way up through me. In spite of my fear, in spite

Spirits carry an ozone scent, and demons smell like sulfur or rotten eggs. A person might not even consciously register the smell, but they’ll sense it on some level. It’s that awareness that the spirit can use as a doorway to return to the environment.

Most people want easy answers to life. They will agree with whatever the echo chamber around them says as long as it means they don’t have to think for themselves. Only a precious few can cope with ambiguity and carry on.

even though life will take the things and the people you love from you, you should never, ever stop celebrating that you are alive.

Oh, it’s over my pay grade, is it?” Adam asked, storming over.

Sometimes you just gotta cut the cord, blood or no.

People can’t talk about you behind your back if you are constantly in their faces.

Humans are out of balance with nature. They are a virus, spreading, destroying. The human race is the ultimate ecological nightmare.

I loved the learning, and I think a part of me felt afraid that a diploma would symbolize that my learning days had come to an end.

to wonder if they’d been holding back to

I’m sorry. I can’t. I’m not the owner, and the bar

People killing one another and ruining the planet to drain it of the last drop of fossil fuel. It hasn’t always been this way.

Out of all the stories people tell about Savannah, the one that truly embodies the spirit of the place is this: Sometime around 1800 a fire broke out during a Christmas party at the home of Josiah Tattnall. By the time the servants discovered the fire, Josiah realized it was too late to save the house, so he took his guests outside to continue the party by the fire’s glow. To me, the moral is that even though life will take the things and the people you love from you, you should never, ever stop celebrating that you are alive. Josiah’s guests toasted life and each other and shattered their glasses against a large tree to show that they planned to move on and not hold on to a past that was gone.

What did I want to say? I had been struggling to find the words that would sum up how I felt, but the right ones would not come. I wanted to say I loved her. That there would be a hole in my heart forever where she had once been. That she had scared the hell out of me, irritated me beyond belief, and I didn’t know how I could possibly face the weight of the magic that was now mine without her support, her strength, her churlishness. I felt my hand shaking, so I raised my glass. “To Mother,” I said.

Sometimes it seems that a person comes into the world with a missing piece. The piece that makes them human just isn’t there.

Sage doesn’t chase away spirits,” Iris continued, “but it does mask their scent. Spirits carry an ozone scent, and demons smell like sulfur or rotten eggs. A person might not even consciously register the smell, but they’ll sense it on some level. It’s that awareness that the spirit can use as a doorway to return to the environment.

Out of all the stories people tell about Savannah, the one that truly embodies the spirit of the place is this: Sometime around 1800 a fire broke out during a Christmas party at the home of Josiah Tattnall. By the time the servants discovered the fire, Josiah realized it was too late to save the house, so he took his guests outside to continue the party by the fire’s glow. To me, the moral is that even though life will take the things and the people you love from you, you should never, ever stop celebrating that you are alive.

Dawn broke over Savannah, scraping the night sky bloody before letting the sun rise over the horizon.