windup
the windup | issue 10
Monthly newsletter featuring book reviews, creative writing updates, and reflections on friendship, grief, and creating in life's margins
Writing
My thoughts, works, and stories
grief
Advent, Fog, and Beauty in the Unknown
Personal essay on grief after child loss, unexpected pregnancy, and finding hope in fog-covered mornings. On motherhood, waiting, and resilience.
social issues
Platonic Soulmates: What Happened to Our Friendships?
Many cultural critics argue that the art of friendship is in decline. The United States surgeon general has named loneliness an epidemic. People are lonelier than ever, and they don’t know what to do about it. Why is that?
windup
the windup | issue 09
a lot of books, autumn happiness, another giveaway (scroll to the bottom)!
family
It Wasn’t Love At First Sight
The common narrative is that when you give birth, you fall in love with your baby at once. In reality, this is a stranger you have to get to know, just like any other person. Sometimes, it’s love at first sight. Other times, it’s not.
💬 Town Square | Is reading really the best way to expand your mind?
Dear Inklings,
First of all, congratulations to our giveaway winners, Sarah Christy, Nisha Mody, and Ruthie Arbeiter! Thank you to
intentional life
Here. Here. Here.
As I pondered over the madness of spending hours on social media or pursuing an unrequited, unfulfilling friendship, I caught myself thinking more and more, “This is not how I want to spend my life.”
windup
the windup | issue 08
social issues
You don't actually know Charlie Kirk
On September 10, 2025, Charlie Kirk was assassinated at a Utah campus. His death triggered the usual cycle of outrage and debate.
grief
“Have you eaten?”
deconstruction
A voice shriveled in my throat
Linda Kay Klein’s Pure talks about the lack of unconditional love touted in white evangelicalism—how that has led to a culture of shame and fear, effects that are long-lasting, sometimes lifelong
deconstruction
My mother’s worn Bible
None of the adults explained death or suffering to us. Neither western Christians (specifically evangelicals) nor East Asians are well equipped to handle grief, let alone walk children through it.
All I could think was, where was God to let a child my age die?
deconstruction
Yes, in spite of everything
An honest reflection on walking away from God, living with uncertainty, and returning to faith 'kicking and screaming.
deconstruction
How fundamentalism nearly destroyed my relationship with God
I was a sophomore in college when I turned my back on the religion of my childhood and declared myself no longer a Christian.
grief
This is the fourth year since your son died
This is the fourth year since your son died.
You wonder where the time has gone, and wonder if it’d be cliche to say it sometimes still feels like yesterday.
social issues
I didn’t even want to be friends with her
People don’t fit into boxes. They’re too beautifully complex, filled with every colour we can and can’t see.
social issues
The Value of Life: Abortion, Adoption, and Agency
Our struggle seems to manifest in different ways: in our attempts to systematize complex moral decisions, our shifting language, our efforts to protect both individual agency and collective responsibility.
grief
Letters to the Forgotten Ones I Still Love
I suppose normally now would be the moment to place some epilogue of good feeling, of how I see the way God is working, how I’m sure it will all make sense one day, of the good that has come from it. But I do not, and I don’t know why, and in truth, no “why” could ever excuse or justify the pain.