![](https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/proxy/1*TGH72Nnw24QL3iV9IOm4VA.png)
The artist looks at the blurry decades-old tattoo on my back. Over my shoulder I say to her, “It hurt so much. It felt like he went too hard, but maybe not? I don’t know. I didn’t know anyt...
https://medium.com/the-book-of-home/conclusion-journey-on-88e6e37c3b91
Heartbreak, they tell you, goes away eventually. “Time is what you need,” a friend will say. “Time and maybe more exercise, get out of your head and into your body. And stay away from the...
https://medium.com/the-book-of-home/chapter-23-forever-and-ever-605280d48a63
Someone once told me that craving a particular thing is your body’s way of trying to tell you important information. You want sugar because you’ve been eating too much of it. You want red mea...
https://medium.com/the-book-of-home/chapter-21-body-language-28107410b1f5
There’s a picture of me stuck somewhere between the pages of a photo album with a group of friends. I am slouched at the very bottom, sliding off the bed on which we were piled for the photo. M...
https://medium.com/the-book-of-home/chapter-21-happy-new-year-fcf52bd3c805
Five years ago I lived, for a time, in a large one-bedroom apartment on one of the most beautiful streets in the city. A half block stroll to the west and a quarter turn to the north, I could see...
https://medium.com/the-book-of-home/chapter-20-a-certain-arrival-ad3610215bff
Some ways north of San Francisco, over a winding mountain pass, sits one of the oldest lakes in all of North America. For thousands and thousands of years, it has been the home of the Pomo people...
https://medium.com/the-book-of-home/chapter-19-the-moon-and-the-mortal-4d87fe213ef8
All my life I wanted to be cool. Of course, the wanting to be cool is where it all goes wrong. It is the wanting. I don’t know where the desire came from or when it first made its presence k...
https://medium.com/the-book-of-home/chapter-18-the-birth-of-uncool-cdc5b10ba85f
Some nights, many miles away from California, I would awaken after only a few hours. Around 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning, tired of lying in bed trying to will myself into a more peaceful state, I ...
https://medium.com/the-book-of-home/chapter-17-the-tin-woodman-35251493ca8d
One night in a cabin perched above a river, tucked away in a forest thick with redwoods and ferns, I let go. Here is what I have learned about myself: I am rarely able to relinquish control. ...
https://medium.com/the-book-of-home/chapter-16-the-cruelest-month-71410629b900
Once upon a time a princess was in love with a man who felt most at home inside his own sadness. It was a quiet cave, his sadness, warm and familiar. A perfect place to hibernate. When the man wo...