Jim’s Gift
Jim left behind three children; two grown sons I’d never known and a teenage stepdaughter I knew only slightly. I had loved them all through their father, and shared his sense of sadness in losing them when marriages fell apart. He thought they were better off without him, but felt a profound sense of loss, all the same. I never believed they were better off, and only prayed that they would find their way back to him someday.
A Lesson Learned
I had thoroughly read the publisher’s contract. In retrospect, I wish I had sought a second opinion before signing it, but I had written something I was happy with, and I was anxious to get it “out there.”
VOTE TODAY: RIGHT AND REPRESENTATION
I hope you have voted, or will before the day is over. I will be honest in saying that I hope you vote the same way I did, but I’d settle for you having your voice heard, even if you don’t or didn’t.
A Lesson in Trust
A part of me worries that they will come to be too accustomed to humans, through me. Still, I can’t seem to stay away. Watching them is one of the great joys in my day… and they visit almost daily. I have wished since the beginning that I “could” reach out and touch them, but I don’t try. Once or twice, I have nearly brushed against one or the other, and immediately, they take two or three steps back and then keep their distance.
An Anole’s Legacy
Last week, my sister shared the news with me that Evan had some type of head injury resulting in a concussion, and that it was quite serious. He apparently fell, and doesn’t remember anything. It got me thinking hard about my brother, though. I suspect that if something were to happen to me, he is the one sibling who would not attend my funeral.
I Am Not an Artist
People used to ask me how I learned to draw so beautifully. I did not learn; I just did.
A Sort of Homecoming
In September of 2003, he had a run of “bad luck.” One week, it was a car accident. The next, it was being held up in the parking lot of a Wal-Mart, where he had stopped to eat a hamburger in his truck on his way home after a long day. Two teenaged boys suddenly appeared beside him, shoved a gun in his face and ordered him to hand over his wallet.
Finding the Lesson
“What am I supposed to learn from this?” I asked myself. It seemed that the prayer and the question went hand in hand; that if I could figure out the lesson of the things I cannot change, I could find the courage to change what needed to change in the future.
Patience, Patience…
I began to dread going to work, as she shadowed me every day, and the questions she asked seemed inane and foolish. I have always believed there is no such thing as a stupid question… but hers certainly seemed that way.
A Healing Testament
This is not meant to be a criticism of the religion I was born into, but Catholicism never was “my bag.” My dear, departed grandmother would be crushed to hear that, but even when I was a small child, I remember thinking that “The Church” just didn’t make sense to me.
