Giving for Christmas

 

No long speeches or talks about giving. I have a few free codes for the audio version of Impossible to Forgive. If you would like one just ask. First come first serve. I only ask you to listen to it.

The Next Step

 There are times I wonder what the next project I ought to work on should be. I know there are some stories I need to finish but what about something bigger. When you've blogged every chapter in the Bible and created 8 journals out of it for people to follow along with it does make you wonder, What could it be? 

The problem is that I do not have a host of people nor a publisher with big bucks encouraging me. So I could ask why try to do something else? What I have however is the knowledge that each of us should use the talents we have to the best of our abilities, even and I might say, especially when no one is watching and maybe even when no one seems to care. 

I won't lay out what I might be doing but I challenge you to rise to the best you can do. If no one notices remember God does. I can't say it will be easy or that it will always feel worth it (it doesn't), but regret is something I can guarantee if you don't try. 

So Go For it!

Now if you accept this challenge leave a message in the reply. You don't have to say what it is just that you are going to accept the challenge to stretch yourself and do something big. 

There are no words.

 

The Apostle Paul said in Romans to rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. I was reminded today again there are times when the words are hollow and can even be detrimental. Sometimes speaking the truth in love means not speaking and just showing truth by loving. Especially when people are facing death or the loss of a loved one. 

Words are powerful so I am reminded that often the right thing to do is not to use them. Yes, the person may be okay eventually and God will work it for good. However, it isn't good now and they aren't okay right now. The words though true at the wrong time hurt. So for all of us silent love is the best.  

Teia and the Dragon 3

 Chapter 3

Teia felt dazed but thought she heard something but the words didn’t make any sense. As she opened her eyes she saw that she was on the floor. Her dad lay beside her and something or someone moved away. She couldn’t be sure.  What happened around her was a blur. As she moved to one side and lean on her arm toward her dad the only thing that filled her vision was her dad laying on his back with one arm twisted at an unnatural angle. She took in a deep breath knowing that her dad was hurt. Then the sound of voices filled the hallway.

Treasa was there and several others she recognized. One of the new guards she didn’t remember his name took one hand and laid it against her head and the other behind her and gently laid her back down. The voice telling her to “Lay still. Just don’t move filled her ears.”

People came and moved her and her dad to the medical room where they were checked out. Her dad had recovered awareness halfway to the medical wing and after a few confusing words were asking questions and trying to get up.

Teia remembered the Doc Tock telling him to stay still. When he still tried to move the doctor grabbed his arm and gave it a little twist. This action brought forth a bloodcurdling scream from the man Teia had thought was invulnerable.  Teia had heard people scream in pain before her mother was a doctor, but this scared her. The action however convinced her dad he had to cooperate.

A couple of minutes later when they set the arm, Teia watched as her dad managed to control screaming a second time by biting down on a bit of leather, from his armor. Other people had been injured and Adam wanted to leave to make room for others. Doc Tock had other plans and convinced them to stay close by.

As he explained it, “This way I can make sure you two are not injured in ways I could not see. Besides,” he winked at them. “My colleague, you know the other doctor I work with, might get upset if I let something happen to you. I hear she like you two.” Doc Tock smiled and waved his finger at Adam and then at Teia.

Teia smiled back. Since her mom was the other doctor. Her dad nodded back at the doctor and lay back down. Eventually, they did move to the side of the room so they would not get in the way of new patients coming in. They found a couple of cots off to the side and after a drink from one of the assistants, Teia found herself fast asleep.

Teia and the Dragon 2

 

Chapter 2

The man who called himself Stone, heard the voice of the dwarven girl running yelling as she ran down the hall. He moved himself into the shadows behind a column and let the screaming brat pass by. If a person had spotted his cloaked and hooded presence, they would have thought he looked like a monk or a wizard. He, however, did have to cast a spell or use any magic other than a natural ability to be overlooked. His mentor had told him that his ordinary appearance and the tendency of others to just ignore him was his greatest gift. He had not believed it at the time but found out that it was true. Secrets were told in his presence. Hidden plans were discussed that if the planners had realized he was there would have remained silent. Even now, a panicked girl who would have drug him someplace to help someone completely overlooked him.

“Oh, pu.” Stone rebuked himself. I can not allow that to happen again. HE had enough self-realization to know that his own mind, his own internal dialogue could be his greatest enemy. I have no idea what that girl was going on about. He had felt the quake and the sound of the tornado outside. This was probably what the stupid little thing was going on about. He was not concerned. This castle could withstand almost anything.

Just in case, he moved with a little more speed than the slow steady pace he usually demonstrated. He was certain if the time was right, he could move faster but he had been warned that to appeared hurried is to appear less in control. People did not trust people who had no control, so he walked at a slow steady pace most everywhere he went.  Now his walking speed was no faster than the walk of most people on their way to a casual meeting. Even when he saw the prone figures laying on the floor at the bottom of the circular stairwell he did not speed up. Whoever it was would be alive or would not? The debris surrounding them was not great. He cataloged what he saw. Part of the roof tiling, some of the light transfer cable, a light-capturing roof tile, odd and end filler materials, and oh yes, two bodies a child and a palace guard which he had first noted.

“Oh, my Stevens” Stone whispered through a twisted smile, “You have hurt yourself.”

He reached down and placed his hand on Adam Stevens's side and turned him over. The child he was holding protectively rolled out of his arms away from Stone. He gave the girl one quick glance and seeing she was not responding laid his hand on Adam’s chest.

“Bother,” Stone whispered, “Barbarians, mechanical monsters, giants, and now a tornado. What does it to kill you?”

Stone glanced around and they moved his hand from Adam Stevens’ Chest to his mouth and nose. As his hand began to close a sound was coming up the hall.

“Your luck can’t last forever” The words were no more than a whisper but anyone who heard them would have thought they were spat out as if they had just tasted spoiled milk. 

No one heard the words. As he moved now more quickly than he had in years, a smile crossed his face. No one would know he was ever there. At least that is what he thought.    

Teia and the dragon 1

 Teia and the Dragon 

(A unedited work)

Teia and the Dragon

Fifty-two years before the world changed. In this “Time Before” technology reigned over much of the world. Communication and knowledge were easy that many forgot how to survive without it. One day all technology ceased to function. Electricity no longer followed the rules man understood. Knowledge was no longer accessible for most. Governments fell and civilization collapsed. No one knew what had caused the change. least, no one admitted to knowing.

Chaos reigned for years, small groups who were better prepared than others survived. The world turned into producers and builders and into takers. The producers and builders tried to build a new society. The takers took from anyone and everyone. The builders and producers who could defend themselves survived and the takes eventually ran out of people to take from. At least that is our hope.

One group had an advantage, hidden away from society a retreat had been built, a castle unlike any other. Those who lived there right after the change believed it was built as if someone knew what was to come. Though they tried no one was able to ask the man who ordered it built if this was so. This group lead by the Stevens family renamed the refuge, New Hope. They reached out to all who were willing and began to build a better world.

However, not everyone wants a better world. For some, if they can not rule it they would rather see it destroyed.

Chapter 1

“I’ve never seen a storm this bad” 

Teia took her eyes away from the window and looked over at her new friend, Treasa. “Did you see a lot of bad storms in your old village?” Teia was curious. Treasa and her hit it off the first time they meet a couple of months back when Treasa’s entire village of dwarves moved to the outskirts of New Hope Castle’s governing area.

Teia tried not to smile when she thought of the dwarves. They really were not dwarves out of the old stories her dad had read to her when she was a child, but humans who had been altered by something in the air and soil. The average dwarf was shorter than her four-foot five height and Treasa was not an exception. Treasa was taller than Kevin who sat on the floor by the edge of the window staring back into the room. Teia tried to ignore him with his arms crossed, face tense and bottom lip sticking so far out Teia thought she could sit a pencil on it and it would stay.

The light in the room intensified than dropped back to the normal soft glow that lasted well after dark in the castle.  Not a second later the boom of thunder filled the room.

“I think I felt that.” Treasa quivered out now looking at Teia, then she whispered back, “we nev’r had a window to look out of during storms but I don’t think so.”

The lights of the room began to pulsate again. This Teia knew was because each time lightening flashed and rolled outside the collectors on the roof sent the light into the castle. Many people found the light show fun. The flashing and flicker balls of lightning bounced across the sky like a balloon or flew like they were thrown by some giant hand.  The flashes created by the lightning caused everyone to move in a room to appear as if they were moving in a series of short movements.

“and we nev’r had anything like this.” Treasa smiled, waving her hand as the lights pulsed in response to the near continual flashes of lightning. Teia when what she meant only those in the castle as far as anyone knew had this type of conductive lighting.

Teia who had spent the first eight years of her life in a cottage outside of the castle as was the custom and remembered her first storm in the castle. The light which seemed to glow from places on the wall and ceiling being transformed into pulses of bright light in the storm. The sight filled her with wonder but sent her mother to bed dizzy and nauseous.

“It would be more fun outside” Grumbled Kevin who did not even lookup.

Teia did not argue with him. They had had this discussion on their way up here. Treasa and her told him that it would not be safe outside with this much lightning. Besides both of the girls knew their parents would be furious if they had tried going outside in a storm like this. Kevin as always came along anyway but grumbled and pouted. Teia wished he would go hand out with someone else, but she knew they were the only children his age in the castle.

Teia looked back out the large window. It was a marvel from the Time Before. Rain, Snow, Ice, and hail could beat on it and nothing would ever come through. She remembered her grandfather had said they were nearly indestructible.

“A machine gun couldn’t even put a chip in it.” She remembered him saying. She knew what a gun was. Her dad had a rifle back in the cottage to hurt with. She had read about machine guns in books but could not imagine why anyone would want to shoot at a window with a rifle let along this gun from the Time Before.

“Look at those clouds,” Treasa said eyes wide.

Teia quit thinking about the glass and looked beyond are the clouds which could be seen in the lightening’s near continual flashes. The clouds churned like a pot of soup getting ready to boil over. There was also a movement in her feet as the castle itself was being swayed by the wind. Teia thought it must be a trick because she had never felt anything like it before.

“So, this is where you all are hiding. I told your moms I would find you here.”

Teia and Treasa turned around to find a man of above-average height and with the muscles of a soldier standing there in the leathers of a palace guard. Most who left the guard put away the leather and returned to the mixture of homespun and clothing left over from the Time Before. Teia smile at her dad who was not like the average man. Adam Stevens though being elevated to the ruling council and no longer a member of the palace guard still worked closely with them so refused to set aside the leather clothes and armor which made them recognizable.

Kevin stood up and before Teia could say anything announced, “I told them they shouldn’t be here.”

“YES!” Treasa growled pushing Kevin who also stood taller than her but only by a couple of inches. “You told us that we need to go outside.”

Adam Stevens ignored the exchange and looked straight at his daughter through the pulsating light and said in a voice that did not invite the argument, “Your mother would like you to come downstairs.”

He then looked over at the other two and said, “Your presence is requested as well.” Teia and her friends looked at each other and knew this wasn’t a request.”

Adam’s eyes looked straight at Treasa and added in his normal voice, “your mom has a bad feeling about this storm.”

 Teia noticed Treasa’s eye grow wide and her mouth first drop and then move closed her face taking on the look of a teacher getting ready to give bad news. She could see Treasa was about to say something when the wind which was could be heard through the walls of the castle took on a deeper, rumbling sound. Teia had never heard anything like it before.  

She looked at her dad who just before had a smile on his face now transformed. He, she reasoned, knew what the sound meant. Before she had time to think any more about it her dad turned to the side and began waving them toward the stairs. The words “RUN! NOW!” burst from his mouth but were being drowned out by the increasing noise.

They ran. Kevin always the fastest way off in a dash and gone before Treasa and Teia were halfway across the twenty-foot circular room. Teia held back just a second to allow Treasa to head down first and as she followed; she felt her dad’s hand pressing on her back.

They were nearly three-quarters of the way down the stairs when the noise changed. The sound didn’t just fill the air, but she could now feel it in her feet. She looked back at her dad and yelled, “The castle is shaking!”

“MOVE!”

The sound changed again and with it the floor quaked. The pressure of Adam’s hand on Teia’s back changed as the sound of the noise changed. Instead of pressing her forward, it pulled her back. Teia found herself being pulled into her dad’s chest. His head and shoulders surrounding her head. She could only see his chest and his arms which pulled her tighter. The lights dimmed and then she could sense them falling. She thought she heard her dad yell a prayer but was not sure as she felt his weight land on top of her and then she remembered nothing.

Burying regret

 

Over twenty years ago I made up a little story for our oldest daughter. I called it Teia and the Dragon. I never completely fleshed it out but gave her the end of the story. For National Novel Writing Month, I decided to get back into it and try to at least get the rough draft finished. 

It may never be good enough to publish but I know Teia would be thrilled with it and probably her kids. So if nothing else it will bring them joy and it will be worth the time. Besides finishing the rough draft after all these years will feel like a victory. A victory against the doubt and fear which held me back all those years ago. 

All of us have some form of regret, I regretted not doing this years ago. I'm fixing some of that now. 

If you have the chance to fix one of your regrets then try. For the rest of this month, I won't be leaving my thought out here. I might throw out a chapter or two of the book but for now, I have an old regret to bury. 

Leave a word of encouragement for me will you, or better yet bury one of your regrets and tell me about it.

Photo by Matt Botsford on Unsplash