Real Life Reflections

This post isn't a story, a poem or a meditation. It's a few questions: What did you like to read when you were eight - twelve years old? What was it about that genre that fascinated you and kept you going back for more? What is your all-time favorite childhood book? You can just comment on this post with your answers . . . please? Thanks!

“What guy studies art?” Pierre asked. A few of my friends and I had gone to the soccer field to practice. It was the dry season, and dirt billowed up around our feet with every kick. I shrugged my shoulders in response and dribbled the ball downfield. “Why would you go to America to play with crayons?” Michael yelled as he ran past me. I passed the ball to him. He took a shot on goal. Achille, our goalie, lunged for it. Just before he kicked it to centerfield, Achille said, “Drawing around here is one thing but to go halfway across the world for a little hobby?” All the guys thought my passion for drawing was stupid or, at best, a hobby. I drew in secret now, avoiding their comments at all costs; but I couldn’t escape them now. I was going to America to participate in a study of talent found in economically challenged countries. With a 95% unemployment rate, Burkina Faso definitely qualified. Regardless of what the guys thought, I had to go. Now, almost a year later, I’d learn...

The night was clear and cool. A welcome relief from the heat of the day. Stars sprinkled the sky like salt, and we could see for miles from our post on the hills outside the city. "Did I tell you about my little Hezekiah?” I asked. “What could there possibly be that you haven’t told us about your ‘little Hezekiah’? You talk about him every night. Even the sheep are tired of hearing about that boy.” My friend answered. “If you had a boy like my Hezekiah, you’d talk about him every night too. You’re jealous of me because I have a son, and all you’ve produced are girls. Who will take care of your flock when you grow too old, eh, Daniel? Who?” “My girls are fine and strong. They will make excellent shepherdesses. Even so, I’m still young and viral. Miriam is with child again and the Lord may see fit to give me a son this time. Then you will be the jealous one!” “Why would I be jealous of your son? I have a boy of my own who can do anything he puts his mind to.” Daniel and I bantered l...

You may have heard someone say, “It’s raining cats and dogs,” but has anyone ever told you that it’s raining fish or maybe frogs, clams, or jellyfish? It sounds crazy, but people all over the world confirm these reports. In 1873, the citizens of Kansas City, MO looked up and saw fish and frogs raining down on them. The year before that in Bucharest, Romania, it rained little black worms, and many years later, on July 4, 1995, the residents of Keokuk, IA watched as full cans of soda fell from the sky. Impossible? Not if a tornado has anything to do with it. A tornado is a powerful, rotating column of air that can act like your vacuum cleaner - it sucks things up. Your vacuum has a container that it uses to store the things that it draws into it, but tornadoes don’t have that so they have to drop whatever they’ve taken. Some times they drop those things right away. Other times, the tornadoes suck things all the way up into the storm cloud that created them. The storm cloud might then ca...

“Happy birthday, Kayli!” My mother greeted me as I dragged myself into the kitchen and plopped into a chair.“Thanks” I moaned in response. How could it be morning already? “What’s wrong?” “Solomon puked on my bed in the middle of the night. I had to take a shower, give that stupid dog a bath, and change my sheets at 2:00 a.m.!” My mom made some sympathetic noises and handed me a glass of O.J. I finished breakfast and got ready for school, hoping that my day would be better than my night had been. An hour later I walked through the school doors, and so far it didn’t look promising. “Whoa! What happened to you?” Ella, my best friend, greeted me as I walked into school with the rest of our friends not far behind her. They all had to make a comment on my appearance. “Hey, Frosty, where’s your corncob pipe and button nose?” “Geez, Kayli, did you walk here?” “Hey Rudolph, what’s up?” “Enough already! I missed the bus. Okay?” I was bright red from the cold and wrapped in every article of clot...

I stormed down the hall and slammed the door. I’d had enough! Dumping my books out of my backpack, I began shoving in clothes – anything I could grab. I dug through the junk on the floor of my closet and found my stash – my life’s savings. I shoved it on top of my clothes. In the midst of this frenzy, I heard a soft knock on my door. "Tricia?" It was my mom. “What now?” I couldn’t keep the anger out of my voice. She was just going to launch into another tirade. Her list of my shortcomings was endless, and I didn’t want to hear them anymore. I didn’t open the door; I climbed out my window, backpack in tow, grabbed my bike and took off for the bus station. Jeremy didn’t know I was coming. He’d be so surprised. I couldn’t wait to see him! We’ve been together for a year; but since his family moved to St. Louis four months ago, we haven’t seen each other. We haven’t even been able to talk much He'd made the varsity soccer team; and with all the games and practices, he hadn’t h...

I awoke in the middle of the night or so it seemed for it was still dark outside my window. I was groggy, but I knew I'd heard something. What was it? The puppies! I was awake in an instant. Glady was having her puppies! I scrambled out of bed as fast as I could and ran down the two flights of stairs that took me to where my mom and one of my three sisters sat and watched Glady, lying in an open box filled with old blankets. She was licking one of three tiny black puppies. I'd never seen anything so small that was actually a real live puppy! They were so small even I could have fit one in the palm of my hand - and I was only 7 years old. They were cuter than any stuffed animal I'd ever seen. I wanted so much to hold one, but my mom said that Glady wouldn't like that very much, so I just watched as she licked them (Mom said that was her way of giving them a bath) and as they snuggled with her. They couldn't even open their eyes yet. It wasn't too long before the ...