Elonoshi

the keeper's word —
you asked once, and nobody came.
you can probably still see the message. you typed it four times before you sent it, you kept it short so it would not sound like too much, and then you watched it sit there and get read.
that is why you stopped asking, traveler. not pride. evidence.
i cannot undo that one. but the pot here does not wait to be asked, and neither does the chair, and neither do i.

there is a mark on this table from a cup somebody set down years ago and never came back for.
i could sand it out. i have decided not to, several times now.

the keeper's word —
there is a chair at your table that nobody sits in.
you still walk around it. you would not dream of moving it, and when somebody new comes over and pulls it out without thinking, something goes through you that you cannot explain to them.
you are not stuck, traveler.
that chair is not you refusing to move on. it is you keeping a place set for somebody who mattered, and that is the oldest and most human thing a person can do.

the pot has a dent on one side from a night i would rather not go into.
it still holds water. most of us are like that, if we are honest about it.

two sisters, one house, and a guest sitting in the front room.
one of them was in the kitchen doing all of it alone, and she finally said out loud what she had been thinking for an hour.
#31 · martha and mary
He had come to their house in bethany. martha opened the door, which means martha took on the feeding of everyone in it.
and her sister mary sat down on the floor at His feet and stayed there. listening.
martha kept going. the water, the bread, the fire, the plates. and every trip past that front room she saw her sister sitting down while she was not.
anyone who has ever hosted anything k

the keeper's word —
there is a room in your house you do not go into anymore.
their coat is still on the hook. the mug is in the cupboard where it always was, third from the left, and you have not moved it because moving it would mean something.
you are not being ridiculous, traveler.
the world tells you to clear it out and get on with things. i am telling you that a mug can stay where it is for as long as you need it to. come sit by the fire. nobody here will ask you to tidy anything.