I’ve always loved the etymology of kindness, which comes from kin—those to whom we are bound by choice or genealogy. And yet I often find kindness is most difficult to practice with my family—those who have witnessed just how unkind I can be.
Lately there has been much talk of bubbles, walls, and divisions—forms we conjure to perpetuate the myth of isolation and individualism: that we can live our lives unaffected by others, gatekeepers of our own private kingdoms. But bodies and borders are porous;
The Waking is an online literary magazine and a part of the Ruminate creative community that houses high-quality literary writing about what it’s like to be human. We are interested in short-form prose and image-text hybrid work. This art can be beautiful, it can be strange, we just ask that it feels true.