✴️ In this episode: A fleeting encounter that opened a lifetime of memory. Reflections on abandonment, empathy, and intuition. How transit spaces awaken the unconscious. The thin veil between the outer world and the psyche Why presence is sometimes the only answer we have

A brush of the arm. A child’s fear. A sudden flash of recognition. On a subway platform in Shanghai, I stood next to a young girl and her father. For a moment — less than a second — her arm touched mine, and I felt everything. Her anxiety. Her uncertainty. Her sense that the person meant to protect her might not. And then, later, in the silence of a farmhouse, it all came back. My own story. My own fear. The child I had once been — lost, alone, trying to survive a world that didn’t seem to notice.

🗺 The Accidental Exile is a series of illustrated stories about travel, trauma, and the quiet places we meet ourselves.

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