Author’s Note

I authored this story with deep respect for Jewish tradition and for the sacred narrative of the Exodus. This is not a retelling meant to replace Torah, nor an attempt to reinterpret Jewish belief. It is simply an imaginative window, a child’s memory placed gently alongside the ancient story, inspired by Midrashic tradition, where personal voices and human experiences help illuminate the truth already held in our texts.

Leib’s perspective is not meant as history, but as heart: a...

Where hummingbirds hum like held breath in flight,

And butterflies stitch morning to night,

There blooms a place beyond design,

A hush, a healing, a curve of time.

The flowers here are not just for show,

They lean to listen. They seem to know.

Native petals cradle grace,

In every stem, a sacred space.

A bench remembers laughter’s tone,

A pathway worn by feet, not left alone.

Hands once trembling find their rest,

As wings alight upon the chest.

A child sets stones where stories sleep,

A nurse walks slowly...

THE MEMOIR OF A GHOST…. CHAPTER 3

The Forgotten Past.

Memories clung to me like cobwebs, the delicate threads of existence, fragile yet persistent. I wandered the empty rooms, tracing patterns in the dust. Had this been my sanctuary? My prison? The details blurred, the taste of wine, the warmth of a lover’s touch. I yearned for clarity, but the veil remained.

In the attic, forgotten treasures whispered. A moth-eaten dress, the fabric once vibrant, now faded. Had I danced in it? Loved in it? Or...

Understanding Yourself: The Emotional You

Written by Peter W. Banahan Published by Raw-Words Publications

In a world that often asks us to be stronger, faster, or someone else...

How I Got Here

(A Becoming Peter entry)

I didn’t arrive at this life in a straight line. Most people don’t, but I think some of us feel the bends more sharply than others.

When I look back now, I see a journey made of pieces, moments scattered across decades, places, losses, trades, stories, and quiet reinventions. None of it looked connected at the time. But somehow, all of it was shaping the man I would eventually become.

I grew up in Ireland, a small boy trying to understand a world that...

Where Elio Was Born

(Becoming Peter)

The Wonderful World of Elio & Solace.

Elio didn’t begin as a character. He began as a small boy, a real one, sitting at a kitchen table in Ireland, trying to understand why his mother was gone.

I was seven. Too young to name grief, but old enough to feel its shape. Old enough to know something had broken open inside me. Old enough to reach for anything that might help me hold it.

So I wrote.

Not stories, not poems, just little letters. Simple words from a...

The Quiet Work of Surviving.

There are moments in a life that don’t announce themselves. They don’t arrive with drama or noise. They slip in quietly, almost shy, and yet they change everything.

One of mine happened on an ordinary morning.

I was standing in a hallway, nothing special about it. Just a corridor in a building where I worked, a place filled with routines, repairs, and the steady hum of people moving through their day. But inside me, something was unravelling.

I had been carrying more...