Emotional Intelligence – James Tippins

There are poems that decorate language, and then there are poems that indict the soul. Dylan Thomas’ villanelle, written in 1951 as his father was going blind and approaching death, is not merely a meditation on mortality; it is a structured rebellion against diminishment. The villanelle form itself, with its nineteen lines and two refrains braided through the body of the poem, is a discipline of...

The End of Anxiety: How I Deal with Intensity, Contempt, and Triggers Without Losing Myself I haven’t felt anxiety in over 670 days. No panic. No self-doubt. No feeling of being overwhelmed by the world’s chaos. And it’s not because life got easier. It’s not because people stopped being difficult. It’s because I found myself. Once anxiety disappeared, I expected smooth sailing, but that’s not how...

To be alone is often a fear most cannot consider, much less face. The silence of solitude terrifies because it leaves us with nothing but ourselves, stripped of the noise that so often fills our days and drowns out the questions we are too afraid to ask. Yet, in solitude lies a gift unmatched, a chance to meet the self hidden beneath the weight of the world’s demands. In solitude, we find our way....

When a Man is Wanted, Loved, Touched, and Known I’ve lived through the seasons of what it feels like to be wanted and the emptiness of what it feels like when you’re not. There’s a shift that happens in a man when his wife wants him, not just as a partner in life, not just as a provider, but as a man. When she sees you, desires you, and chooses you, something changes. You feel it in your chest, in...