This is the message, the broadcast, the dispatch. I send it to you under no duress, but the urgency is felt. I don’t have forever and now is enough. It’s thrilling and humbling and painful and perfect.

I think of all the ways, over many centuries, that regular people could not have dreamed of being seen the way that we are seen today, and yet, so much is invisible.

Everything unimaginable is probably imagined eventually, but we are all alive now, this is it.

Thank the stars.

I’m excited by this very modern way of practicing the ancient need to share and to connect and it means so much to me that you’re here, taking in my little contribution.

I’m going to talk to you about things like:

• having been adopted - my original wound

• digging up with my mind the abuse my body necessarily, but crudely buried

• the ways that I set myself free and some of the ways I used to set myself on fire

• traveling/running from and to

• etc.

Most of this will come to you free, but some things will be protected behind a paywall. This is the non-negotiable decision I came to as I was agonizing over wanting to build community through my writing while diligently protecting myself.

I know a paywall isn’t a perfect solution for the reader and I promise I’ll do my very best make sure you’re all feeling included no matter what, but it’s important to me to have reverence for my story. It took a long time for me to build the loving, careful boundaries around what and how I share things and this is another layer. It is imperfect and I am still learning.

My goal is to write a book. This is partly a dress rehearsal for that eventuality and partly an attempt to earn something like ‘a living’ from the hardest work I’ve ever done.

Please, take and enjoy whatever resonates and leave the rest behind. I won’t be 100% for you, but 100% is what I will give.

I’m glad you’re here.

All words and photographs, unless otherwise noted, are the sole property of Liza Kate.