Wildflower Writes

Photo by  Benjamin Suter  on  Unsplash   I’ve heard it said, “Never meet your heroes. You’re sure to be disappointed.” I’m sure that’s a fair warning if your heroes are celebrities- actors, sports stars, or musicians. Given the percentage of people who are jerks in the world, a celebrity has as good a chance as any to be kind… or not. My favorite heroes are unsung. Single parents who are making it work. Underappreciated service workers. Pastors and chaplains. People who get up every day with a smile on their face and brighten their world. I’ve met some of these heroes. I’ve never been disappointed. The more I’ve learned about them, the more I’ve been humbled, amazed, blessed, and inspired. If you’re worried about meeting your heroes, maybe it’s time to find someone else to look up to. As we know, not all heroes wear capes.

Photo by  Tim Mossholder  on  Unsplash “What is that?” I thought, as I spotted a white square-shaped blob on my driver’s side window. “It looks like bird…” It’s January in northern Indiana. Don’t most birds (except “friendly” Canadian geese) fly south for the winter? If I had wings, I would find somewhere warmer to live! So I looked up, and sure enough, about 30 feet above my usual parking spot, nestled in the winter-bare branches of a hardwood tree, is a giant, scraggly bird’s nest. What are the chances? Sometimes it feels like we have particularly unlucky days or weeks or months or years (2020, anyone?) Like those days when you’re running late, and have to stop for gas, and spill your coffee, and someone cancels on you, and it’s not even 9 am? You start ruminating on all the reasons it’s been a bad day, and when something else happens, you add it to the list. There’s something called confirmation bias, where instead of being objective, you look for information tha...

Photo by  Derek Story  on  Unsplash Living in an area crisscrossed by railroad tracks, I hear train horns day and night. The long, mournful wail makes me smile, reminding me that there are people and things on their way to the far reaches of the continent, and they happen to be passing close by. Even though I’m settled in my cozy home or office, the trains are forever moving. Someone is traveling to a new destination for a fresh start, or to spend time with loved ones. Someone’s special order is on its way to surprise and delight, and it has to go through my city to get there. I’ve been on the other side, too. I’ve traveled by train, watching small towns zip by the windows, following rivers and seeing mountains approach in the distance. I’ve drifted off to the steady click-clack, click-clack of the wheels on the tracks. I’ve experienced the anticipation of the journey and arriving at my destination. Kay Warren writes in the book, Choose Joy , that “life is much more l...

“Life is a gift, and it offers us the privilege, opportunity, and responsibility to give something back by becoming more.” - Tony Robbins When someone as beautiful, talented, and blessed as Natasha Richards passes on, we all pause. Our hearts break for young sons, a devoted husband, and other family and friends. We wonder what plans they had for after their ski trip, for next year, for the future. We wonder about the last mundane conversation with her husband was about before she fell. It makes me wonder… if I died tomorrow… what would people remember about me? Have I made good with the gift of life given to me? Have I used the talents and knowledge developed in my lifetime for the best use? Have I, as Henry David Thoreau said, “...live[d] deep and suck[ed] out all the marrow of life… live[d] so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life… cut a broad swath and shave[d] close… drive[n] life into a corner, and reduce[d] it to its lowest terms...”? Life is so precio...