Nathan tried to calm his wife down. He realized that she had been truly angered by Evelyn's sudden behavior for wanting to create a grand wedding for Owen and not her. It was truly devastating and he couldn't deny that. "Doris?" He called out to her, knocking gently on the door. His voice remained as warm as early spring, as if her heart beat so steadily even though she took a different view from him. She simply said this was her way of doing things. He could see her balk at first, so accustomed he was the to ways of Doris and her fiery temper. He was different, because he absorbed things and then responded more than reacted, dampened situations rather than adding to the flames. And so before he knew it everything was happy again, it was love all around instead of the bickering he was so accustomed to. It was a sense of calm he grew to love.And he would be teaching it to his wife now. "This path of life is challenge enough," he began to say. Nathan remembered a little of what his m

Frost grew over the windows even as the duvet kept her warm. Isla watched the ice-crystals grow for a while, allowing her brain to be empty, content to exist and be. The morning would bring the beauty of the ice for sure, that crunch under boot and the bold greeting cold air brings. Yet between now and watching her breaths rise as new white-puffed clouds there will be a very cold night. The kind that only stops at the doors of the well-made houses. The cold weather that seeped through any thin cloth to drain the soul, instead feeds the soul of those well wrapped in warm layers of well insulated fabrics.It was the same type of coldness that reached into one's bones, as if their heart were a door left wide open to the icy wind, slamming only to open again. The only thing to do would be to keep moving, keep heading toward home and the steady warmth of the hearth. There was a lot on her mind that night. And she even tried her best to get Nathan off her mind. She wouldn't just stop thinki

Today the sunshine was in his bones, it's heat radiating outwards into the bright day. It was as if the people glowed, their aura so happy on these summer days. Manuel rested in the shade, his eyes on the foliage above, on each green leaf in that vast canopy. He watched a man reclined in that dappled shade, a book resting on his raised knees, his eyes following the text as if it were the soft call of a lover.Before he had quite chosen what to do, his feet have taken him under that same tree, perhaps they longed to feel the coolness of the grass around him. And as he read on, he dreamed and the moments stretched out into a medicinal ambiance, made all the stronger for the heat, the brilliant light and the blessing of such company.After a while, he decided to head back home. That was when Manuel observed that there was a kind of tiredness that needed a good night's sleep, and another that needed so much more. For him, one became the other, starting out as the "one night kind" until on

I wonder if anyone noticed how pretty the sky was today, how the blue was bright and soft all at once. I wonder if they saw the serenity of the clouds that sailed by, gently passing on toward anyplace the wind wishes them to reach. I wonder if they let their eyes rest upon their white tops and follow the infinite greys that blend so harmoniously with one another, almost bluish. I wonder if they, as I did, imagined them to be Beluga whales swimming through a clean ocean, a happy family, singing, playing. If they did, I hope they felt at least a little of what I feel, a calm sense of awe as warm as sunny rays. If so, I hope they felt a tingle in their fingers and heightened senses, the heady aroma of blooms and the subtle movement of leaves, the way light reflects from both foliage and feathers. For when I tune in to these subtle and many pleasures, these everyday wonders, nature gives to me a quiet joy... and in that moment I am as happy as any queen or king has ever been. Doris smile

IWe can reframe our hero and villain characters as apex nurturer-protector and apex predator respectively. Whether we are looking at Kong vs Godzilla or the character of Dominic Toretto in the "Fast and the Furious" franchise vs any of the villains his team faces, we see the same theme. Humanity is looking to run itself with apex nurturer-protectors rather than apex predators because this is the way to peace and sustainability.Character is not a set thing, yet can morph and change as we mature, as we learn to keep the 'good wolf' version of ourselves in command and the cold hearted 'evil wolf' self at bay. We are, after all, as the elder said, "Two Wolves."Lisa threw her head back and laughed. "Hypocrite? Ha! Yes, of course I'm a hypocrite, but then there are two of me. There's my subconscious mind with its high ideals and my conscious that just wants to ensure the survival of me and you. So yes, I want to fight global warming and I drive a car, I want animal rights and I buy meat, I