Welcome to Notes from the Hill
Grief, family, dogs, work, faith, revenge fantasies, and the (not-so) occasional wasabi pea.
If you’re new here, welcome. I’m Kate. The hill is a real place, but somewhere along the way it became more than that. It is where I stand while trying to make sense of grief, family, work, faith, dogs, and the strange things people do to one another and themselves. These are the notes I’ve been taking from here.
Some pieces are personal essays. Some are fiction. Some live in the murky space between the two. But they are all connected by the same questions: Why do people do what they do? What does love look like when it is complicated? How do we live with what happened to us? And why does humor keep showing up when absolutely nothing is funny?
There is a lot here now, so handing you the entire archive would be a bit much. These pieces should give you a good idea of what you’ll find.
A painfully honest look at the younger version of me, the things I am still ashamed of, and the people who saw all of it without deciding it was the whole story.
A story about loyalty, workplace erasure, and what happens when “let them” is no longer enough. Also, the honest and not especially evolved part of me that still wants them to pay.
A funeral, an unexpectedly purchased grave, and the strange comfort of discovering that Uncle Paul would be buried five stones from my mother. A story about grief, family, humor, and the things we can still do for the dead when we no longer know what to do for the living.
What happens when life becomes unbearable and a friend treats your absence like a personal offense? A story about grief, one-sided friendship, and finally recognizing when a relationship feels more like something you have to manage than somewhere you can rest.
Was It Really About the Wasabi Peas?
It started with bad office snacks and ended with an email I probably should not have sent. A story about corporate life, accumulated frustration, and the tiny final inconvenience that unleashes everything else.
If I Could’ve Given Birth to a Puppy…
I never wanted a baby. A puppy, possibly. A story about being happily child-free, loving dogs more than most people, and becoming Ba to the one child who made an excellent case for himself.
Lately I’ve Been Running on Faith
Faith does not always feel like peace or certainty. Sometimes it looks like driving a car that is falling apart while the universe appears drunk and unsupervised. A story about grief, exhaustion, dark humor, and continuing without any proof that the road gets easier.
And if you want to read the piece that unexpectedly brought many new readers here:
A story about proximity, fear, and the people we would drop everything for.
I cannot promise tidy lessons or that I will always take the high road. I can promise honesty, dark humor, complicated people, excellent dogs, and the occasional revenge fantasy.
I’m glad you’re here.
The line that stayed with me was this: “why does humor keep showing up when absolutely nothing is funny?” That feels like the truest introduction possible. Grief, dogs, faith, anger, family, absurdity—this sounds like a place where life is allowed to remain complicated.