Blog Stories

The Beauty of Decisions

Years ago a woman at church shared something I have always remembered. She commented on how many decisions we make every day, in the thousands, without even thinking. It struck me how much autonomy we have over our lives in the small and large decisions, and even the automatic ones. So many things we think of as reflexes are really small decisions, made in the blink of an eye.

It got me thinking. Thinking about decisions I make daily, without much thought. Or the ones I give a passing thought, little decisions, seemingly inconsequential. Of course, we cannot agonize over every decision, but if we bring to consciousness some of our knee-jerk decisions, won’t we have less conflict, get more done, stay closer to God during the day, trust more instead of worrying? Wouldn’t we live according to our values more often, weigh the value of spending time with this versus that?

Gets kind of overwhelming, doesn’t it?

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A New Morning

A fiction excerpt Bold shafts of morning sun nudged open Emily’s eyelids, still sandy and dry from her late night. She shut them quickly with a groan, and rolled face down into the feather pillow. Yet the warmth of the day’s beginning urged her upright and teased her eyes back open. She slid down from the bed and approached the window, drawing in a full breath of balmy breeze. The previous day’s voyage faded to a murky half-memory that seemed unreal. Unreal, that is, except for the bruise on...

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Two Worlds

Starbucks in Paris. A tourist’s haven from heat and culture stress, as well as a Saturday meeting place for Parisian students. The typical population—well-to-do teens, traveling families, twenty-somethings in summer fashions— filled the comfortable chairs drinking lattes, espressos, and frappucinos. A woman “of a certain age”, as the French would say, entered an alcove by the window. In one hand, nails encrusted with black, she held a steaming beverage. In the other, she clutched two pastries...

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New Places, New Content

A couple of years ago I created this web site because as an aspiring fiction-writer, I knew I needed this thing everyone is talking about...an online presence. Editors and agents wanted to know that if a book was published, there was already a space on the web to nail it up for people to see, and folks potentially interested. That seemed like a pretty good idea, except for one chronic question, what do I put on a fiction writing web site if I haven’t published anything yet? That question...

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Is Anyone Listening?

There’s this awkward situation. You know the one I mean. We’ve all been there. You go to a restaurant with a group of people, or to a party, and almost everyone else knows one another. You’re the new kid. You introduce yourself and everyone announces their name. And that’s often as far as it goes. They then turn to the person they already know sitting next to them. Understandably, it’s safer ground with known signposts. They aren’t put on the spot thinking up inane questions to ask in order to...

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Je Positive

My very first experience on French soil occurred in 1989. I spent two weeks in southern France helping with English programs in a church there. I’d studied a bit of French, oh, about nine years earlier. Not too much left in those archives. I recalled a smattering, though. That is why I was so perplexed when I kept seeing a billboard with these words: “Je positive”. That means “I positive”. That’s right, no verb. I knew enough French to know that it made no sense at all. Years later I...

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Fits and Starts

Fits and Starts (or, My Writing Journey) I’ve wanted to be a writer since the age of ten. That’s about how old I was when I decided to one day adopt the pen name “Kyle Hunter”, which is my first and middle name. It just stuck with me all those years (I won’t tell you how many.) Though the name stayed with me consistently, other aspects of my writing dream did not. I wrote my first book at the age of 11, entitled “The Fabulous Adventures of Freddie and Herbie”. It was the story of a turtle and...

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Home Again

Home again…some comparisons So, here I am back on USA soil. It surprised a lot of people, including me. Well, not totally, because I gradually had the sense that soon, I’d be ready to return to my own country. It starts as a small niggling emptiness, missing family more, then seeing my place in the world gradually shifting continents. Needless to say my family was ecstatic. We were used to being in different countries, but that was starting to get old, you know, the 18-hour trips to come for...

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Emotional Hijack

There I was minding my own business as I sat at my desk. Enthusiastically, I worked on some ideas related to coaching and writing, seeing how these two could work well together. Suddenly I became aware of a strange and unwelcome emotion. It rose up as from a bog, steaming, smelling putrid. Before I knew what was happening, it had begun taking over my body. My shoulders slumped and my energy leaked out like a water balloon with a foot-sized gash. My great plans didn’t look so thrilling anymore....

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One Small Act

Colette will never forget the day her mother bundled up her few pieces of clothing, took her hand, and trudged through the Haitian hills towards the orphanage.  Colette didn’t know where she was going or why she had all of her possessions with her. Nor did she understand why her mother never spoke a word, but wept every step of the one-hour trip. The lady who welcomed them at the entrance of the primitive stucco building smiled kindly, a pattern of worn tracks across her face showing hardship...

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Time for Faith

In our day, most people don’t have time for faith. They don’t make time to believe . . . in anything. It’s a shame, because much of the magic of life comes through the possible, the hope. They also don’t make time to believe in anyone who might be bigger than them, someone who’s more powerful, someone who has their back. Regardless of what you believe about God, there’s some benefit to at least thinking about Him. In fact, many studies have shown that religious people are happier than most....

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Winter in Paris

Since I live in Paris, I experience all the seasons of the city. You’ve probably heard the song “April in Paris, chestnuts and blossoms, holiday tables under the trees . . .” Well, sometimes it’s like that in April and sometimes it’s not. Here they have a little rhyme which says, En mars et avril ne te decouvre pas un fil, which means in March and April you better keep your coats on! That’s pretty much true, although it has been known to be sunny and nice in the spring, (just don’t count on it during that April vacation) and cold and rainy in summer. It happens.

What about winter? Most people don’t think of coming to Paris in the winter, unless they get fantastic off-season deals or want to avoid the crowds, or have free tickets from a relative. I’ll be honest, I dislike winter in general, but forced myself to open up my eyes and my spirit to see Paris in the winter as frozen picturesque, but picturesque all the same.

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