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⚽ Twelve 8-year-olds + 200mg of caffeine + one mortified coach = the best bar story you’ll hear today. Trust us, you want to hear how this ends.
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A late-night traffic stop becomes a reminder: storytelling connects us, grounds us, and makes us known. In a world of strangers, our stories are how we find our way home.
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Grant’s thoughts about purchasing the Toyota snapped away when the officer softly tapped the driver’s side window. “Hello? Can you roll down the window for me, sir?” Grant didn’t realize the young officer was standing next to his door. The lights were blinding and hypnotizing all at the same time. “Yes, sir. Absolutely.” He quickly
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Before I was old enough to read, I told stories. Imagination incubated, spit out into the world through my limited toddler vocabulary. After being taught how to read and write, the magic turned from oral stories to written stories. Now I was writing my own material, reading everything I could to get ideas, even the
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Staring right at me, I thought she would start screaming, yelling at the top of her lungs. Before you start in on me, I just want to set the record straight – I didn’t start this argument. No. Really. I didn’t. It wasn’t my fault. But then again, the guilty always have a way of
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You expect certain sounds in Tualatin in the evening. Cars driving over the pavement, catching every uneven section with a thunk-thunk. The acceleration and deceleration of semi-trucks, some shifting up or down. It all depends on their speed. Whether or not they catch the beginning or end of a traffic light’s cycle will determine the
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“Tamara.” Ms. Geri never raised her voice. “You owe her an apology.” “Do not!” The four-year-old girl shouted at her pre-K teacher. “She started it. Not me. She owes me an a-po-golly. Why do I have to say sorry when I’m not?” Tamara pulled on the braid her mom put in her hair. “I
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“You what?” “Let me say it again. I gave up.” “Gave up what, exactly, Stan?” “Everything.” I was puzzled by what Stan said to me. For the last two years, I watched Stan go through some of the hardest things I’ve seen one person deal with. The emotional trauma alone was enough to make me
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Cape Girardeau, Southeast Missouri. It’s a quiet, quaint small town with big city aspirations. One thing not lacking in Cape. Restaurants. Cape’s got a little bit of everything. From fast food joints like Burger King, McDonald’s, Wendy’s, and Taco Bell to a few that are more nuanced, like Qdoba, Chick-fil-A, and Culvers. Then you have
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For a spring day, it wasn’t that cold. The SEMO sweatshirt I was wearing kept me comfortable enough. Not too hot. Not too cold. Not just right. Adequate is more like it, but I could’ve cared less. Coming from an English class where the students thought they knew more than the instructor was scary.
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Thinking to myself, I wondered what it would be like. “Josh, I’m starting to think you might be a little bit, you know? Woohoo.” Travis put his finger to his temple and spun it in a circle, the universal sign of being insane. “That’s a little too out there.” “Why? Like you’ve never thought about
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“299.” “How do you know that?” Standing over the spilled various colored Skittles, a young girl asked. Blonde. Tightly braided pigtails trailed down her shoulders, tied in bows with a bright red ribbon. Her bib overalls were a little too big, the cuffs falling over her well-worn Chuck Taylors. On the front of the bib
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“Gerry! Hey Gerry! Can you hear me?” “Hmm?” Pulling off the Bose headphones, the young blonde stared straight ahead without blinking, waiting for her boss to say something. Instead of answering, she waited, knowing full well anything other than a correct response would warrant a severe tongue-lashing. “Gerry, didn’t we submit the billing for Harris
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“What happened to Jennifer and Sarah? I thought they were friends.” After eating a light lunch at Pete’s Diner, Francis and Martha sipped their espressos. Both women were friends from the local Southern Baptist church, lifelong followers of Jesus, and very stuck in what they would say is their views of Christianity, regardless of how
Stories. Enjoy!
5 Minute Observations 