My fourth short story published.  The Practice of Stopping Practice in Wordgathering: A journal of Disability Poetry and Literature in summer 2026, published by Syracuse University. 

They had warned him.  When Sam died folks told him it was important to stay active, to stay engaged in activities outside the house, to make sure he didn’t “isolate.”   He appreciated this advice, but it felt to him as observations made from outside his life.  And from the inside he observed that no one invited him to any activity with them.  They were Sam’s friends, and so the connections with them died with Sam.  The last time he would see most of these friends was at the memorial service.  A service of Buddhist prayers for arrival in the Pure Land for Sam, a lapsed and crusty Methodist. 

 

(cont.)