The Social Porcupine

Young And Stuck He was too young to be running from the law. Mistakes. They shouldn't affect him yet... he was just a kid. A kid holding a bank bag, running from raging sirens. “It was a mistake,” tears squeezed from his eyes as he clutched the bank bag, wishing he could throw it far away. He was stuck. He didn’t know what to do, what he needed. A place to hide. That’s all he needed before his legs turned him in. A hospital. He ran inside. The halls were empty, full of doors. Which one would hide him? Would any? He didn’t know, so he chose one. A whimper startled him; the boy screamed a single curse word. “A baby,” he tried to laugh, but his nerves were too tight. He neared to the crib. “All alone?” he whispered. “I wish for your peaceful solitude. I had a baby brother. Are you a baby boy? Or a girl? I feel like I’m talking to the air.” Footsteps exploded in the hall. The boy fell to the floor, hiding behind the crib. The door opened, a painful jolt erupted insi...

Uncle Amoz and me when I was first born. This spring one of my uncles died. It was very sad, and the circumstances of his death were crazy.  He was too young - it shouldn't have happened. All of us were shocked. Many were angry. Many still are. It's crazy how death makes life appear so differently. Especially when death happens to someone you know. What's even sadder... I wasn't able to go to his funeral because I was traveling and too far away to catch a ride with anyone that was going. This post, though, is not going to dwell on the circumstances of his death.  It's going to be more about him. I never liked to do favorites. I always told people it was wrong to have favorites... at the same time I had them ;) But to be fair I would try to make sure my siblings would have different favorites than I did. Such as... Me to my sisters : My favorite color  is pink. What are yours? Sisters : I don't know. Me to Jeru...

To answer the question from last week:   Do you live to make memories, or to remember memories already made? And I'm going to disappoint you by not giving you an astounding answer. The thing is, it was just one of those random, weird thoughts that came to my mind. And it was too good to not ask the closest person sitting next to me. We discussed what we thought for a good bit, and came to this conclusion: Neither and both. You, see, it's good to live in the moment. To live life so full you are overfilling life with memories. But it's also good to take a break from life, to lie on your back, to just remember what has happened and enjoy that. It's good to do both. And it's also good to not put too much emphasis on one or the other.  Those who just live for the thrill of making memories will miss out on the ordinary things. They'll forget how to just live. And those who live just for memories that were made? Well, besides th...

Early November I went to Tennessee to volunteer for Above Rubies for my second time. I was only planning on staying a month and half, but as life has it, plans changed numerous times so that I ended up staying over six months! Back with family .... ..and friends. I just arrived back home about two weeks ago. In some ways I feel like I'm home... But then  other times I still find myself thinking of TN and everyone there. Six months is a long time. A lot can happen in six months. One of my friends married. Another had a baby. Another entered a relationship. Friendships went through rough times. Many were strengthened. I learned a lot about life and people in general during my time there. I learned life skills, people skills, conversational skills. I had troubles and trials during my time there. Some involved others, while some did not. Either way I learned a lot even during those times. In some ways I...