Reflection

Quieter pieces. Waiting, uncertainty, disappointment, and the parts of wanting something that nobody puts on a poster.

• Everyone needs somewhere to put the thing they cannot say

  Confession booths, diaries, therapy rooms, anonymous forums, the friend you call at one in the morning. What actually makes a place feel safe enough to say it in.

• When the bad thing does not end

  Illness, caring, grief, unemployment, a year that will not finish. What happens to what a person wants when the difficulty goes on for years.

• The bargains people make in hospital corridors

  Almost everyone has said something, alone and out loud, that they would never admit to saying. What that is, and why it does not require belief.

• The ones that do not happen

  Some wishes simply fail, and no amount of reframing makes that alright. The case that making them was still worth doing has to start by admitting that.

• Some wishes for a bad stretch

  A set of plain wishes for someone having a hard time, written without any promise that things get better.

• The ones that stay in your mouth

  Some wishes are never said, not because they are secret but because saying them would cost someone something. A look at what goes unspoken and why.