E very morning they gather along the fence line near the succulents, nine donkeys, each one different, each one somehow already telling its own story before a single word gets written. The tall one at the front always stands closest, watching everything with those long, patient ears turned toward whatever sound arrives first. Behind her, [...]

I have loved words since before I understood why. As a child, I collected them the way some children collect stones, turning them over, feeling their weight, noticing how the same word could mean something different depending on the light it was held in. "Some callings arrive loudly. Mine arrived as a whisper, [...]