03/26/2026
Watering the Soul by Courtney Peppernell
Chapter 1- Slow Down
"It was as though you had blinked and suddenly the year was over.
You had just been watching the countdown, sitting on your
living room floor, wine bottles all around,
laughing with the love of your life.
Then you read the book you said you were always going to read,
and you finally went to the opera and cried through the final act.
You bought seven new plants and promised you would buy a new pair of shoes. Those old loafers were worn.
You never did throw them out.
Then the love of your life left, for a while, it seemed like the world had stopped right alongside you.
Only it hadn’t.
The world carried on.
And then winter came, with snowdrops on windowsills and trees baring it all before spring returned, promising so
many new things: the way it always does.
And there was someone new and beautiful.
Someone who gently took your hand and danced with you, whispered that there was moonlight in your eyes.
You never thought you would make it.
But you learned something that year-
Life could be more than surviving;
It could be lived."
