A Blurred Reflection

Tag: hope

  • Steps

    Far below me on the canyon floor–well, more specifically, one of the many levels of the canyon floor–a round, muddy, teal-blue pool caught the five tiny rays that reached down to it, winking and twinkling them back to the sun on its barely-stirred ripples. Ivory walls rose straight up from this pool, circling up and…

  • Character

    Character. That foundational piece of you. Yes, YOU. Untouchable by disease.  Unhindered by poverty. Unmistakable when times get hard. It’s the man battling cancer and the man battling heart disease who invest hope into each other instead of speaking of their own pain. It’s the mom with the uncooperative toddler in the grandchildren photoshoot–the mom…

  • Trail Blazers

    Trail blazers. They are the women who hold their daughter’s hand and skip across the Walmart parking lot at mid-day. First to look into a small one’s eyes and say, “I made a mistake. Could you please forgive me?” First to trade old habits for new. First to say, “Yes,” when they’d have rather said,…

  • 5 Ways You Can Make Life Easier for Peeps with Social Anxiety

    I asked the babies, “What should I do if I say something very embarrassing in front of everyone?” “Run away,” declared the 8-year-old. “Cry,” from the 6-year-old, with empathy. “Get very mad and stomp my feet,” stated the 4-year-old, calmly, as if there was no other option. Hi, my name is Kara, and I have…

  • Don’t You Give Up On A Miracle

    Little Green Journal Entry “I dreamed last night that I was apprehended by a tall teenage thug, built and styled like a wrestler. I was walking down a stairwell in New York City, and he opened the street door, about to climb up. We stood face to face. My heart was pounding. I don’t remember…

  • We Don’t Get To Be Here Long

    Bu-BUMP, bu-BUMP, goes the blood in my jugular vein, as if my blood vessels are a track and the blood cells are thoroughbreds, surging towards the finish line. I stomp the accelerator and turn the wheel into the mat of blackberry vines, very aware that my body is being forced back into the seat as…

  • If my hike had a soundtrack…

    The air was the perfect flavor of pine and clean wind as I sauntered along the smooth, shaded path past Lake Hebron that warm-but-not-too-warm day. The loons cried their short-lived daytime conversation and a bandana’d youth sat contemplatively underneath a fir tree, watching the reflection of clouds sweep across the slightly rippled water. His iPod played…

  • Victors

    Tonight, the headlines irrevocably declare: “120 Dead in Paris Attacks, Worst Since WWII”. Terror is spreading across our planet, and the people of this planet, like ancient wooden ships adrift in a storm, scatter. Some cry, some shout “Revenge!”, some huddle in the paralysis of fear. Some hold up signs that say ‘NOT AFRAID’–a distinctive…

  • Courage

    Isn’t it crazy that even when everything I know and see is on the downstream side of insanity, just hanging on to hope by a thread, Jesus’ name is STILL ‘Deliverer’? Even when I feel like a skittering mouse, MY name, because of my divine heritage, is STILL ‘Courageous Victor’? I’ve thought to myself, “Maybe I’ll find a…

  • Independence Day, All Day, Errry Day

    Do you know what it’s like to be free? Does it feel like a triumphant march, bold, brazen and unstoppable? Does it feel like an entirely new government, a government that actually has your best interest in mind? Does it feel like a fireworks show, loud, colorful and unpredictable? Maybe just a tad dangerous? Does…