Welcome To The Loft
Step aboard. This is a living line of thought—an immersive system of stories, prompts, and pathways designed to move you forward, inward, or somewhere entirely new.
Here, you can grab a ticket, pack your questions, and board a route toward clarity, curiosity, or even contradiction. Whether you're carrying something heavy or feeling stuck at a station you didn’t choose, the Discovery Loft offers a place to explore what’s ready to shift.
The Loft is our central line—an evolving archive of essays, emotional deep dives, and voice-led inquiries written by Cassie Higgins and the authors of the Loft. These aren’t just musings. They’re mirrors, maps, and gentle disruptions. They’re here to help you see.
Truth unfolds here. Language lives here. And your next stop? That’s entirely up to you.
Choosing The Struggle
A quiet reckoning. A love that couldn't save itself. A woman who walked home whole.
I was talking to a friend the other day about a really complicated decision we’re trying to make about our home build. Honestly, we’re at that point where the struggle and friction of what we’re doing is finally catching up with us—just like we knew it would.
What’s surprised me most, though, is what arriving here is actually teaching me. And wow… did I get a lesson I wasn’t expecting.
After hearing my friend share the story of the butterfly, I realized just how important it is to allow your kids to share in the struggles along the way. Not to rob them of their childhood—but to show them what facing adversity really looks like, and what it can lead to if you’re willing to sit in the discomfort of it for a little while.
If you want to read the full story, it’s waiting for you below. ⬇️
She Let Him Break
A quiet reckoning. A love that couldn't save itself. A woman who walked home whole.
This story came to me in a dream.
And I don’t mean, like, a little snippet or a weird image—I mean full-blown cinema. Start to finish. Characters, plot, heartache and all.
I woke up like what the actual hell was that?
I never dream like that. Ever.
I told Mark the whole thing over Italian ice like… “I just dreamed this entire story—like it was already written.”
He was like, “You dreamed all that?”
And yeah. I did.
So I wrote it down. You have to when something comes through that clear.
And as I sat with it—started pulling the threads—I realized it wasn’t just fiction.
It was truth.
My truth.
How many times I’ve tried to carry someone else’s pain to stop them from feeling it.
How many times I’ve gone back to something that looked like love—but only ever took.
How easy it is to abandon ourselves for the hope of something soft… even when we know better.
This story isn’t just about Olivia.
It’s about all of us who’ve ever tried to be the fix.
Who’ve ever let someone break us just so they wouldn’t have to break alone.
But the ending?
That’s still ours to write.
🪨 She Let Him Break is live.
Go read it.
Especially if you’ve ever loved harder than you should’ve… or held on longer than you had to.
An Awakening Journal
From Awareness to Mastery (and all the messy loops in between)
I submitted this piece to the Trenton Library’s Adult Writers Contest this year.
I’d been dancing around the whole “being a writer” thing for a while, so I thought: You know what? I’ll submit this piece—and then I’ll be a writer.
Because I’d have a piece. And it’d be up for first prize. And hey, who knows—maybe I’d even win.
And then I’d really be a writer.
Spoiler: I did not win.
And you know what? That’s okay. Because I still won something big.
I won the right to call myself a writer.
I’m proud of this piece—not just for how it’s written, but because it’s true.
Because I survived it.
Because I’m still here—not just to tell the tale, but to leave a few breadcrumbs behind for the next person stumbling through their own loop.
Because dang… we get caught in some mangled patterns sometimes.
And getting out? Whew. Easier said than done.
🌀An Awakening Journal is live.
👉Read it now and catch your own loop mid-spin.
Your Path, Because It’s Yours
The Hardest Truth I’ve Seen Disney Tell
I’ll be honest—when I watched the live-action
Lion King, I was half trying to escape the room.
It dragged. The singing wore me out. And Disney kind of freaks me out in general.
But then … I saw it.
And once I saw it, I couldn’t unsee it.
That moment when legacy feels like exile —when everything you thought was yours gets stripped away, and suddenly you’re on a path you never asked for.
Mufasa doesn’t collapse when he's torn from the future he was promised.
He adapts. He finds a new pride. He tries to lead in better ways. But no matter how good he is, no matter how much he grows—they never truly let him in.
Not the ones in charge. And that hit me.
Because we don’t talk enough about what it costs to walk your own path.
Sometimes life has to burn down everything familiar just to show you what was never really yours.
And if you’ve got purpose—
real
purpose—there will be moments you try to blend in, just to soften the edge of that loneliness.
But the truth is this:
Your path is yours alone.
Not because you’re lost.
But because you finally got quiet.
Because you stopped performing.
Because you chose to walk forward—not in circles, not for approval—but toward the life only you can see.
➡️ Step into “ Into the Fog” via the Loft Lab—a micro-journey of reflective prompts + AI mirrors to help you separate the noise from your knowing.
It’s short. It’s quiet. It’s true.
And it begins
right here.
Not a Fan, Not a Follower—Just Curious
An Unexpected Look at Donald Trump, Identity Formation, and American Mythology
You know… I wasn’t even sure I was going to share this piece.Because, well… Donald Trump.
And frankly, no one can seem to get ahold of themselves long enough to hold a thoughtful conversation when his name comes up.
But I didn’t write this for anyone else. I wrote it because I had a full day of thinking it through. And I wanted to get it down.
So when I shared it with my husband, Mark, he asked, “Are you going to publish this?”
Truth is, I wanted to.
Because I think these are good thoughts. Thoughtful thoughts.
And it’s an interesting perspective—one that might not be everyone’s, but it’s mine.
Here’s the thing: A lot of people struggle to see outside their own perspective.
But I like that space. The middle. The space where multiple things can be true, where I can flesh out why someone might feel one way and why someone else might feel the opposite—and still understand both.
Because life isn’t simple. And your perspective? It was built by something. It didn’t come out of nowhere.
And so few ever stop to even wonder what made them think that way at all.
So I decided— Ah well… frick it.
Here’s my assessment of Donald Trump, hardened by my life experience— A perspective from which I could see him.
🚂 Click the link to board the Loftliner Express— full route to my personal assessment of Donald Trump’s internal processor departs now.
Curious where this goes? Tap below to read the full essay.
Latest For The Loft Loungers
Essays from the edge of the mind.
Where patterns, paradoxes, and personal revelations collide. These pieces don’t just think outside the box—they question who built it, and why you stayed inside so long... And a little fun!
Choosing the Struggle
What if the very discomfort we try to avoid is exactly what our children need? In Why We’re Choosing the Struggle, The Builder’s Wife shares the story of trading comfort for resilience—possible by mov... ...more
The Loft ,Kids Loft
July 31, 2025•2 min read
What Our Walls Taught Me
In her debut essay for The Discovery Loft, The Builder’s Wife reflects on the unexpected lessons found in wood, nails, and the willingness to change direction. What began as a simple walkthrough of th... ...more
The Loft ,Lab Insider
June 23, 2025•2 min read
The Simple Awareness
A tender, grounded essay on what real awareness looks like—not as a mountaintop or mystical escape, but as a mother teaching her daughter how to wash her hair. “A Simple Awareness” invites readers int... ...more
The Loft ,Kids Loft
June 20, 2025•1 min read
Generative AI Is Not Art
New Blog What happens when someone close to you calls your entire creative process a cop-out—without even knowing it? In this raw dispatch from the Loft, Cassie Higgins explores the emotional fault li... ...more
The Loft ,Loft Lab &Lab Insider
June 19, 2025•4 min read
Loft Deep Dive on President Donald Trump
What if Donald Trump isn’t the anomaly—he’s the amplifier? This essay explores Trump not through politics, but through the lens of performance, ego, and responsibility. A provocative look at legacy-dr... ...more
The Loft
June 16, 2025•6 min read
Welcome to Discovery Loft
This isn’t just a site—it’s a mental launchpad. A living space for metacognition, pattern disruption, and reimagined ways of being. You might just be surprised by what you find! ...more
The Loft ,Kids Loft &Loft Lab
June 15, 2025•3 min read
🧪 Step Into the Lab
Where weird ideas get tested, tools get built, and self-awareness meets science. [Explore the Loft Lab →]
📚 Return to The Loft
The core of it all. Essays, reflections, and creative pieces from Cassie and the voices within. This is where thought finds structure. [Go to The Loft →]
🌟 Visit the Kids Loft
Whimsy meets wisdom in a collection made for our littlest loftlings—and the grownups who guide them. [Discover the Kids Loft →]
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