“Be Still and Know”

By Beth Carter

He says God’s got big plans for me

But why keep it a mystery

I can feel it in my soul

But can’t get over this hole

That’s yearning to be filled

I keep on searching in your word

But where’s your voice I have not heard

By faith I do still believe

That on you my heart will cleave

To fill this empty void

Do not despair oh child of God

I felt his voice my spirit awed

Assured in the awesome truth

trust my heart and let it loose

To just be still and know

“Things”

By Marie Craig

I’m sitting here at a car dealership waiting for a new battery.

My car needed a heart transplant.

Program on TV — too loud — describing the purchase of a new home,

The price is two point five million!

Everything had to be just perfect and huge.

Wonder if they will be happier than they were?

Wonder how the people in the new huge home will react

When they see the evening news spotlighting the homeless people,

The refugees because of storms and volcanoes,

And the slums of American cities where industry has moved to China?

I’m in the process of trying to downsize and streamline.

There’s an emphasis recently on tiny houses.

What a contrast of size and purpose compared with the TV show.

I remember now why I have only a TV antenna

So I can watch only Jeopardy and PBS.

My little fat TV will do just fine as I save much money each month

And focus on the things that matter to me.

This current time of prosperity and ease of purchase

Has created greed and dissatisfaction galore.

“Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth.”

“Defeat of Reality”

By Mike Gowen

I hold you close, but you are still far away,

The distance further with each passing day.

I attempt to reflect on what used to be,

My mind is blank, it’s only now that I see.

The days pass like years, each month a decade,

The fear deep inside of the life I have made.

No longer responding to the future or past,

I cling to moments, longing for peace at last.

My dreams are loud, they echo in my ears,

Remembering fate, I hold back the tears.

Dreams that were, are never to be,

Driven by the wind and caught by reality.

Ironic the day tears will stain my grave,

Wishing for one chance my life they could save.

My laughter soars up wishing there I could be,

Showing them all I’ve defeated reality.

“Too Many Excuses”

By Kevin F. Wishon

Billy had a habit. Every time he went grocery shopping with his mom he would run off to find something interesting to see. Sometimes it was the magazine rack, other times it was a video arcade game. Billy knew how much time his mother usually took to complete her shopping and would rejoin her as she finished the errand. Though he kept her waiting more than a few times, he always had an excuse for each occurrence. The delay irritated his mom, but she tolerated it to prevent Billy from annoying her while she shopped. So, this habit continued for years.

One day, Billy felt the need to visit the facilities and proceeded to the grocery store restroom in a utility hallway. He reached to lock the restroom door behind him and surprisingly found someone had taped the door latch over with clear packaging tape. Billy disliked the thought of someone disturbing his privacy, so he tore the tape from the metal door freeing the door latch. Locking the door, he relaxed comforted by the fact no one would be bothering him.

Washing his hands and drying them, Billy tossed a paper towel in the wastebasket and reached for the door handle. The handle turned, but the door remained secure. Twisting with all his strength, he repeatedly turned the door handle, but the door would not open. Billy was big for his age, but no amount of beating, shaking, or kicking would shift the door. After yelling several times, he realized no one was nearby to hear. Billy was no longer comforted by the fact no one would be bothering him.

Billy slid the blade of a pocketknife between the door and doorframe in an attempt to move the latch sideways releasing the door. After several attempts, he discovered why someone had placed packaging tape over the door latch. It was jammed and locked into place. There would be no cunning escape as Billy imagined. Instead, he was reduced to yelling and beating against the door. Eventually, store employees heard Billy and proceeded to dismantle the door lock. Looking at his wristwatch, Billy could see his mother had completed her shopping forty-five minutes earlier and would be furious because he had not been at the store entrance waiting for her. When the store personnel freed the door, Billy bolted past them and ran to the store entrance.

Billy’s mom was not in the store. He proceeded to the parking lot where his mom had parked the family sedan upon arriving. The vehicle was gone. Had she left him? Returning to the store, Billy spotted the car parked near the storefront with his mother waiting inside. She was furious at him. Even as he tried to explain, he found his honest explanation falling upon ears weary of his excuses. Billy was dismayed by his inability to convince his mom and realized how his previous excuses had eroded his credibility.

“Pacifiers”

By Gaye Hoots

Pacifier is something or someone who appeases. Our culture uses the rubber nipple version of these to soothe babies, and they become very attached to them. Yesterday one of my daughter’s seventeen- month- old twins bit the end off her pacifier. Cami cut the ends off all their pacifiers to make sure they did not bite off and swallow part of the pacifier. The next few days will be difficult for them. Aubrey puts the round rubber part that is the base into her mouth. This part is thicker than the piece Everly chewed off but can’t be very comforting.

Jaden, my great-granddaughter, was about two years old when her mom took Jaden’s away. When we visited a friend of Jaden’s, I saw the two of them whispering. They opened a kitchen drawer to look for the stash of pacifiers Tucker kept there. Too late, the mothers had taken all their pacifiers at the same time. Children adjust within a few days, but this is not a happy few days.

My girls, Cami and Kendra, were not a problem. I attempted to give them a pacifier a few times. They would pull on it three or four times, spit it out angrily, and glare at me for trying to fool them. If their attempts only rewarded them with air, they lost interest. There is a concern that frequent use of a pacifier can cause problems by affecting the position of a baby’s teeth. I have seen a few children as old as four years old carrying them, but parents usually take them away earlier.

I don’t remember having one but vividly remember how Faye gave hers up. Grandpa Hoots promised to buy her material for a new dress if she would let him burn all her pacifiers. Faye and Mother gathered them and handed them to Grandpa. He opened the door to the woodstove in the kitchen and tossed them in. We watched them melt and burn. Later we tried to find one but couldn’t, none survived.

Grandma bought material for a dress for me as well. I still remember the dresses, pastel blue and pink with a small print of ducks, and a scalloped neckline. Funny how something can trigger such a clear memory from seventy years ago when I can’t remember where I put my glasses fifteen minutes ago.

Psychology refers to the desire to hold something in your mouth as an oral fixation. My great uncle gave up smoking cigars when he was middle-aged, but for the rest of his life, he kept an unlit cigar in his mouth. A friend of mine used drinking straws, cut to the length of cigarettes when he quit smoking. He kept them in his shirt pocket and would put one in his mouth to chew on when he felt the desire for a cigarette.

My children were easy when it came to the pacifiers, but their bottles were another story. One night after Kendra had been two days without a bottle, she begged me to call my father and let her talk to him. She told him to bring the bottle that he kept for her chocolate milk. He knew that I had taken her bottle but had been giving her bottles of chocolate milk when she was with him. Training children is a family affair. Do not underestimate a small child. I have seen them break the will of people a lot stronger than I am.