Ultimately, she decided to marry the king; not for power or riches but for freedom. She was the poster child for a pristine upbringing in high society. Her mother raised her for this: to curtsy just right and to always have the perfect thing to say when a conversation becomes dull. From the outside, no one was surprised that the young king had fallen for the porcelain doll of a socialite. This was...

There's something to be said

about the feeling you get

in the moment you finally fit in.

I stood out all my life,

and not in the way people aspire to.

I wasn't the sunshine that lit up the room,

I wasn't the talent that needed no introduction.

I was the red stain on a perfect family tree.

Black sheep have the advantage of blending into shadows,

but there are no shadows the color of my crimson...

When we met, all I saw was grey. Not the peaceful cool grey tones of the rainy PNW sky but rather the lifeless grey that felt like grief and loss personified. He made me so angry and was the literal grey cloud that followed me around everywhere and brought my spirits down making me more angry than I had ever been in my life. Before I met Callahan, I firmly believed that I didn't have an angry bone...

In my youth,

my feet were tied to the ground

for but once a year.

Each summer,

I was set free in the once-foreign mountains

that quickly became the closest thing

I'd ever had to call home.

I was the kid always lost in a daydream in history class

wishing I was running through the pines,

playing Capture the Flag with my summer camp friends

instead of running down the sidewalk

from the bus stop...

The horses in the stable went wild; they knew of the coming storm. After months of the same routines with the same noises and smells, the twenty horses spread down the alley knew exactly what was in store for them. Their bodies reacted to the stimulation around them before their minds could find any sort of rationalization or recognition of what was about to happen. The pawing of hooves and the ch...

There's a girl I see every day.

I know every detail about every version of herself she has ever been.

Some days I am excited knowing I will see her,

but some days I hide and pray I won't catch a glimpse.

She's different now than the version I first knew.

The girl she used to be was one I could never love.

She was loud and bossy and never had the right thing to say.

Then she evolved into a person ...

"Y'know, you should've-"

"I know I should've done this years and years ago, please for the love of all things sacred stop reminding me," I bark at Angela.

"I was going to say you should've brought some dust clothes up here with you but I won't say you're wrong," my eldest daughter corrects.

When Angela arrived at my house twenty minutes ago declaring that today was the day we were going to sort an...