Saturday, May 10, 2014. The late afternoon sun filters through the leafy canopy outside my kitchen window and the brightness stings my tired eyes. I sit at the table, guitar in hand, staring at the frayed transition where the linoleum meets the carpet. …

Just a week ago, I was on the phone with my mom as Hurricane Helene ravaged her home in Mills River, North Carolina. Though I couldn't hear the wind itself, the sound of windchimes on her porch furiously clanging in the background haunts me still. …

We moved in with my mom’s lifelong friend when we got there. The house was in a field next to a small airport for crop dusters. The light on the tower would circle all night long and flash in through the balcony doors at the end of the upstairs hallway. Sometimes …