Inexplicably, it’s been five years since my last post on this blog.
Or, actually, when I go back and read some of my past self’s embarrassing entries, it’s not so hard to believe. It feels like another person, a younger, sillier, perhaps lost version of me used to write these stories and share them with you. I suppose that’s not so far from the truth.
So many things have changed since then, but many more haven’t.
I decided to leave this blog up as a memento, but also as a safe shelter for any of you who are looking for original stories to hide into, because I know I’ve been there myself. Heck, I still find myself there at times.
One thing that hasn’t changed throughout the years is my desire to write, to build a digital world in which TTWD is a sacred, stable, emotionally available haven where I can safely explore my needs and feelings. In the past few years I kept writing privately, often together with Mishi Dreamer, but we haven’t shared those stories with a single soul except for one lucky friend who has been discreetly following our journey.
Clearly, another thing that hasn’t changed is my appreciation for Alyx’s Christmas Exchange, a founding institution in our community. Every year, quiet or not, I’ve been waiting for the Exchange to happen, lurking for those links, spying on any entries, if only to be able to sneak away during the holidays’ chaos and slip into that world made of understanding, complicity, squirmy sensations, embarrassing secrets lived as simple truths, and love. The stories from the community have been some of my all-time favorite gifts: they make me feel connected to a group of people I rarely engage with now, but to whom I’m bound and that I know is there to signify I’m not alone.
So, after so long, after years of trying and failing, I’ve decided to come back to contribute in 2025’s exchange not with one but with two special (I hope?) gifts.
Here’s the first – it’s a story, just like old times, and it’s one I wrote while experimenting with my second gift.
And here’s the second, something I’ve never quite done, but that I decided to try this year as times are starting to be a tiny bit more mature.
Be wary, it’s not going to be everyone’s cup of tea.
And, in any case, be sure to read my guidelines and advice in this post before you try it.
Merry Christmas, old and new friends. Just know that somewhere out there we all still exist, and our feelings haven’t changed quite that much. I look forward to meeting you all again, be it among the pages of a virtual space, in a dedicated chat or wherever in the physical world.





