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Best Christmas Ever!
Creative non-fiction from Lisa Hess... "Outside, shapes started to emerge from the dark and the fog—a frosty white Christmas is a gift in itself—and as I listened to the sound of my family starting to stir, I thought about how happy Jake’s joy made me that Christmas morning. There are few gifts more precious to a parent than seeing your children overtaken by joy. Nothing compares."
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A Modern-Day Parable
A certain man had two children, and the younger of the two said, “Father, give me my inheritance. And the man divided his property between the two children. Not many days later, the younger child gathered all she had and took a journey into a far country, where she squandered what she had on riotous living. And when she had spent everything, there arose in the land pestilence and rioting and looting in the streets. And she joined with them, turning her back on all she knew of the Father’s ways. Every day, her father watched at the door for her return. But in the back room, kneeling in supplication…
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The Huckleberry Patch
Aunt Dodie—Dorothy Mae Collins to those outside our extended family—was an original. God broke the mold after making her, and that’s for certain. For her entire adult life, Aunt Dodie had lived in the central Idaho mountains in a cabin overlooking Payette Lake. She never married, never had kids of her own. But there wasn’t a one of us—in any Collins generation—who didn’t know where to turn when we needed help or advice or a bit of loving concern. I suppose if she’d been born a Southerner, they’d have called Aunt Dodie a “steel magnolia,” for she was as strong as she was beautiful. However, we don’t have a comparable…
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White Noise
“…for Christ plays in ten thousand places, Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his To the Father through the features of men’s faces.” ~ Gerard Manley Hopkins Sometimes, when I can’t sleep for nightmares of our past, I’ll tune in to listen to the AIs argue among themselves. Their interaction produces an interesting kind of white noise. The sound is a strange, musical cacophony, a mélange of squeaks, hoots, bangs and crashes reminiscent of distant city sounds, in the time before this time. I wouldn’t say I find the sounds soothing, exactly. But reassuring? Yes. They haven’t even noticed we’re gone, and hopefully never will. But both the…
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The Rescue
The sweat on her skin chilled. “Every second longer we’re inside increases how hard it will be to fight our way out of here.”
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The Magician
“Joey Hunter!” Our son’s shout vibrated the metal stands we sat on. Onlookers covered their ears. They obviously had children who spoke in normal decibel levels.
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BAD GIRL
I can’t understand why she cares so much about the admittedly inappropriate nature of the name we’ve chosen. I rack my brain, trying to make sense of this attitude I’m getting from her. Why these waves of criticism crashing toward me from across the desk?
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CHAPEL OF THE SACRED BRAMBLE
Like a wary desert leopard, the monastery crouched halfway up Mount Sinai’s rocky slope. Judas eyed the rugged peak and wondered if those who built the hermitage thought they would somehow protect Moses’ sacred encounters with Jehovah. The full moon hovered just above the barren mountain, casting a silver glow against the monastery wall and the noiseless structures contained within.
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John Wayne Lives
He pulled his billfold from his back pocket, retrieved the tattered paper and carefully unfolded it. “This says I won the lottery…a hundred thousand dollars.”
