Stories - FD Thornton

It’s a little nippy this morning, but that’s because a steady breeze is blowing again. Listening to the wind rustling through the leaves, I’m reminded how lucky I am. I live in a quiet neighborhood, got myself a garden plot, and the rent's cheap. While I may not be able to afford hot water and the kitchen sink keeps stopping up. But the good usually balances out the bad most of the time.  I’m not much into religion anymore; but I do revere nature. While our cognitive minds may see unfairness and cruelty. Nature has its balance. Forest fires bring about new growth, floods often replenish ground water, and death often nourishes life. I used to see the world as a cruel and inhumane place. But in hindsight I now see the beauty and symmetry of it all. If anything, it’s the enlightened element of man that has thrown the world out of whack.  So as the wind brings about change, let us all be reminded. Balance works out itself in nature. But it is often the interference of other

After a rainy night I got up this morning to a really beautiful day. I’m enjoying the outside while I can, Mr. Brown just drove by with his lawnmower so I’m sure he’ll be over here pretty soon. Meanwhile we got a steady breeze a going, I got the laundry on the clothesline, and I picked up the fallen limbs from last night’s storm. There ain’t much my mind right now, had a pleasant conversation with my adopted big sis last night. Catching each other up what’s going on here and back home.  So I don’t have any moral lesson or rant to speak of, I’m just sitting here grateful that I can enjoy the yard. Just watching the pollen fall from the trees, grateful that Mother Earth still shows us balance in an otherwise unbalanced world. But it’s easy to be reflective and grateful when the world is standing still. When all the busyness we create suddenly stops, and all we are left with is ourselves.  I can’t tell you how to spend your moments. I’m not going to beat you over the head with

Speaking to a friend this morning, she was telling me she was trapped in a house full of grandchildren during this pandemic. Needless to say, she’s pretty miserable at this point. I’m sitting here in the backyard with my grandkids locked away at my daughter’s house. We FaceTime every few days, but Lisa sure is missing her grandbabies. I suppose we all have our sacrifices to make. No one really has any advantage over the other, for we all suffer in our own way.  Outside the mockingbirds are singing, while the Calico out chasing squirrels. Life next door at the Electric Co-op is pretty much unchanged, considering they are essential services. Down the highway log trucks move along as if nothing’s going on, while cars pass by the me heading to the courthouse. Considering how the streets of New York are looking, we appear to be a thriving metropolis.  Still when the dust settles, the trickledown effect will begin. A handful of cases will turn into a few more and a few more. Then

What is self? What is healing? In the Christian faith I was taught self is inherently bad. That the seeds of the father are passed on to the son. That the only way to break the chain of inherent sin is to give up one’s self. To take on a life of selflessness and servitude. Now your option my vary, but that’s how I was taught. A few decades ago, I found myself broken. But to be honest it started a lot earlier than that. I walled myself in creating this shell of “everything’s fine”. But deep inside I was slowly dying. In the process everything around me had to die as well. My escape was to abuse and lash out at everything and everyone I loved. All the while killing myself with “a thousand tiny cuts”. Friends and family insisted I had just lost faith in God. But when you found myself under the covers balled up in the fetal position crying for help, and no help comes. You tend to get a bit jaded about the whole God save me thing. Again, your option my vary.   What I have learne