One of the hardest lessons you might learn in life is that there will be seasons when your greatest joy will be other people's joy. That when your own well runs dry, you mustn't be jealous of other people's water. And just because happiness is scarce doesn't mean you should withhold it altogether. ©️ Katie … Continue reading The Hardest Part
Meditations
A Mirror of a Mirror
Our emergence into the world of AI has had me thinking lately about creativity and artwork. If the human creative instinct is a mirror of God's creative ability, then what is AI? If I take the existing parallel that the creation will never become more significant than its creator, can I have some peace as … Continue reading A Mirror of a Mirror
Witness Beauty
The rain comes gently, the clatter of a million footsteps dancing across my roof. A lazy dance, unhurried. The birds roost in the spruce tree, ruffling their feathers. A cardinal squeaks, cocking his vermillion crest this way and that. The afternoon lies drowsy and chilly on the hillside. I watch the birds pecking in my … Continue reading Witness Beauty
A Garden’s Legacy
Sinking your hands-- a shovel, a rake--- into dirt feels so simple. So solid in a shifting world. The earth turns over; its dark belly gleams toward the sky. Spadeful by spadeful, you shift the contour of things. You dig the hole. You plant the tree. Your hands smooth the dirt and tuck the roots … Continue reading A Garden’s Legacy
Retracing
We retrace our steps sometimes, and the remembered magic isn't where we left it. You speculate--- what makes a special moment so unique? What endows a place with its aura? And if you returned to that restaurant on a drizzily April night one year later, would the same stardust glisten in the streetlights? Would you … Continue reading Retracing
The Nature of a Healthy Life
Now is the time of change--- hibernation. The trees shed their clothes and settle down to sleep, and perhaps their roots stir with thoughts and dreams of what's to come. They look forward to that quiet time--- the dormancy above which nature's harshness will blast--- they look forward to that time of rest and storing … Continue reading The Nature of a Healthy Life
Drop That Bar
Lower your standards. I mean it. Lower your standards. What’s wrong with being a hard-working, obscure writer? There are a lot of hard-working writers who have amazing bodies of work and hold their heads high every day. What makes you need to be the great American novelist… or nothing else? Here’s the problem with you. … Continue reading Drop That Bar
Filling the Voids
I've been a distracted, undisciplined writer for half my life. Great chunks of years have disappeared into writing hiatus. Imagine it like a vast white space in the middle of a neatly typed page. A huge void. Those voids I have filled with silly things--- not my words, thoughts, or ideas. Not even the stories … Continue reading Filling the Voids
Exotic Milk
Where do you stand in a world looking only for exotic names, skins, and avatars? Where do you stand when you're just bland milk with a brain and thoughts that do not fit? It seems to me the world wants bland, uniform innards coated by a colorful shell. It doesn't want bland on the outside … Continue reading Exotic Milk
The Return
I had forgotten how differently paced life is when you must go into the office to work. From the moment you wake up, you feel as if you cannot catch your breath. Is there enough time to get my run in? ... Did I remember to lay out all of my clothes last night?... Meal … Continue reading The Return
Seeking Prose 