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Hello and welcome back to Tales from the Pit.

I'm your intrepid host, Michael Swame, and this is your trigger warning.

In today's episode, my guest Vanessa Guerrero and I discuss our worst days ever, a conversation

that touches on depression, anxiety, heartbreak, PTSD, self-loathing, and suicide.

On the bright side, we also talk about how to deal with those things.

We don't just say sad stuff and then roll credits, we're not Darren Aronofsky.

But before the interview, a new short story, inspired by my favorite author, Harlan Ellison,

I've decided to do away with any mystery and explain it up front.

This story is about parts work and about learning to be kind to yourself in the midst

of great suffering, not by resisting your inner abuser, but by sitting with it, being

present with it, and ultimately taming it.

The monk is you, the child is hope, the robber is your self-loathing, and the seasons

are the seasons.

They pass in glory whether we bear witness or not.

This story is called Two Graves, someone dies in it.

Once long ago, very near here, a monk and her child lived by a quick-moving stream among

...