Ezine Archive

The boy’s eyes follow me around the room.
His thinly painted lips purse nary a hint of a smile, only a telling, a knowing far beyond his tender years—or maybe he does know, maybe he knows everything, staring out from the portrait with generations of patterns and sufferings pouring through him.

The mother next to him [...]

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“You cannot capture happiness no matter how hard you may chase after it.  Happiness is something that follows you.”The words of the old sage echoed in the young man’s heart, sounding a constant beat like the song that plays over and over without reprieve.
“What does that mean?” he asked himself. “Time to walk,” he continued, [...]

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I greeted her in the hallway with a gentle squeeze, that kind of hi-I’m-happy-to-see-you-and-have-no-idea-what-to-say embrace, as if words mattered anyway.
“You know?” she asked.
“Yes,” I replied. “I’ve been praying for you everyday.”
She forced a smile and nodded before she turned into the salon.
When I made the appointment, they asked me at the front desk if I [...]

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“The last year of hard work has finally paid off,” he said. “Your delivery, presence, modulation—all of it work.  I’m proud of you.”
I beamed.
 
“Of course,” he continued. ”This is only regional theatre and there’s nothing wrong with that.  Many speakers make excellent money doing regional theatre.”
“What do you mean?” I asked, sensing a set up.
“Well, [...]

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The girl spun on her toe for the last time, stopped, flexed and took a bow
as the audience burst into applause.
She smiled, curtsied and ran offstage into the waiting arms of her
classmates.
“That was sooo fun.” they cooed and squealed.
Outside, a bevy of family and friends showered her with kisses and
congratulations.
“A perfect performance,” her mother praised. [...]

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The boy pushed his way through the brambles and scrambled up the embankment
that led to a bed of rocks.
Into the distance, as far as the eye could see, stretched two rails on top
of treated wood beams.
His favorite place, a place to dream, a place to explore and discover.
He knelt down and placed his ear on [...]

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The man plopped down on his chair, defeated.
His father’s maxims bit his ears and nagged him like tired Christmas jingles.
“No pain, no gain. No guts, no glory. No risk no reward. Gotta’ pay to play. You never know until you try.”
On and on.
He sat, dazed, in a semi-trance, half-comatose, half numb, with tinges of remorse and disappointment punctuated by [...]

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“What are you doing with that acorn?” Jimmy Squirrel said to his best friend Tom.
“It’s the perfect size,” Tom replied. “I’m going to drop it in the big field.”
“What for?” Jimmy queried.
“`Cause a huge oak is just a nut that held its ground,” Tom smiled and the banter began.  Every fall they played at words [...]

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Big John toiled into the night at his desk in the small cabin he had called home for the past seven months.
“So many reports,” he muttered to himself as he strained his eyes to write, dipping his pen into the ink well again and again.
In war torn 1943, the ship’s captain allowed no lights [...]

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What about this business of “perception equals reality”?
Any truth to it? 
Any power in it?
My Dad, when sassed by any of us kids, often said:
“Oh, I’ll make a believer out of you.” 
As I look back, I chuckle with the realization that he so often did, with those simple words.
We never knew whether he had the [...]

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