Before we become adults carrying visible stories, something quieter begins.

Long before we can explain ourselves, invisible threads gather.

Some are woven from wonder.

Some from loneliness.

Some from the companions no one else can see.

Some from the ways we learn to make sense of a world that does not always understand us.

They do not begin as bindings.

They begin as essence.

This collection is about those unseen layers—the ones that slowly shape us into the people we become.

He was simply enjoying the morning.

Watching him, it struck me that I wasn’t looking at wildlife.

I was noticing the guest at the next table.