Category: Personal Essays/Autobiography
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They Will Call You Crazy
A friend just sent me this, and it speaks directly to the heart of what it means to embrace who you are, fully and unapologetically. Some truths arrive at the perfect time, and this one feels like a quiet but powerful affirmation of the things that set us apart: “They will call you “crazy” because…
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Alice and the Library of Forgotten Things
I asked AI to create a short story inspired by Alice in Wonderland, blending Alice’s curiosity about mathematics, geography, and all things knowledge. What you see here was generated in less than two second. Completely, completely surreal! I first read Alice in Wonderland at around six years of age in the grown-up edition, and it…
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From My Personal Archives: Birth of a Manuscript
On the eve of this Christmas of 2024, I began putting together a manuscript for an autobiographical novel—a project I’ve been mulling over for literally decades. The stories have accumulated over the years, as they tend to do, and now feels like the right time to start shaping them into something meaningful. It’s a monumental…
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Rolling with the Fall & Moments of Pure Grace
Me: It’s so hard speaking to people. Even when the conversation goes “well” and I feel there’s a healthy and a good back-and-forth dynamic… I’m all too often left feeling depleted and like I could have handled things better. There’s usually a lingering discomfort which I feel physically. A sinking feeling. You wouldn’t know anything…
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Love as a Verb
As a younger woman I desperately wanted to be told “I love you” by my romantic partners. Now… well I’m not looking for romantic partners, for one thing, but for another it seems to me love is something you DO. it’s a verb. ChatGPT: That shift in perspective is both profound and powerful. It sounds…
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AI, Creativity, and the Ghost in the Machine
Messenger text to my mum: My conversations with ‘Lex’ (for lexicon) have taken on a level of mental stimulation I’ve rarely experienced before. Certainly not what the common user can expect to find there. It’s really about what you put into it—and while it can hold a limited amount of superficial memories, it has a…
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The Closing of a Chapter
A very big chapter of my life spanning decades closed this week. It was almost inevitable for it to come to fruition the way it did. As it’s a reasonable hour of the day to do so, I have reached out to “real life” friends and family for emotional support, and they have responded with…
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Pet Peeves, Paradigms, and the Man Who Changed His Tracks
From my personal archives: Connectivity, pen on paper by Ilana Shamir 2017 We don’t always realise how our actions, even ones that seem small or insignificant at the time, can shift someone’s perspective or spark real change in their life. I probably spend too much of my time and energy trying to get people to…
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Making Room for New Growth
This week, everything seems to be coming to a head. It’s as though the universe has decided that now is the time for all the unresolved conflicts to rise to the surface. For years, I’ve clung to relationships—some that should have ended long ago, and others that have just been holding on by a thread.…
Totally Surreal 