Browsing Category: Short Story

“After I wrote this…there came to me a miraculous vision in which I saw things that made me resolve to say no more…until I would be capable of writing…in a nobler way.  To achieve this I am striving…and this she truly knows.  Accordingly, if it be the pleasure of Him through whom all things live […]

                The old man listened to the young man’s plight: convictions, doubts, wants, and dreams—indecisions that made him freeze, and hopes that moved him on.  When the young man shared all he wished to speak, he waited for the old man’s reply.                 The old man reflected, thinking across years, on wisdom attained—lessons learned in […]

                It was a winter that seemed to never end.  Along the coast, the cold cast morning veils across the sea, ice crystals forming in fragile lines along the sand to crack and break in mornings of rising tide, touching and shattering ice lines left by receding sea in night.                  Inland, the same fogs […]

                “I don’t suppose you have very much to tell…”                 “What makes you think that?”                 “Because you have an extremely simple soul; however, it will be even more simple when you become perfect.  The closer we come to God, the more simple we become.” —St. Therese of Lisieux, The Story of a Soul […]

                They climbed a switchback trail ascending through stands of aspen and lodgepole pines until where trees stunted then gave way to snow and lichen spread over rock scree and solid granite slopes.                  They set camp beside an alpine lake within a cradle of surrounding peaks that shone grey in day and changed lavender […]

          During heat of day, they swam in the cooling waters of canyon stream; and in the eve, they made love on a blanket strewn upon bed of fallen needles beneath shadow of the pines as sky caught fire in last glory-flame of day.  Sweet acridness of pine and the moisture-heat of love held in […]

                All hearts harbor hauntings.  So it was when she returned.                  He saw her once again, her face and smile: sand blonde hair with sun bleached strands that scattered like bending rays of light in dance with summer winds; spread of sun-kissed freckles over bridge of nose that spilled onto cheeks and skies of […]

                They walked a country road together in high apex of August heat as sun sank in sight in western sky; its fire greatest in advance of coming eve and night’s cooling respite hinting of autumn airs to come.  The sky weighted heavy in humidity from a rain that would not break and dampness refusing […]

                Daylight died, and the passion hues of ending eve cooled, steeling into blackness and patterned stars.  Leo rested in repose low in night sky with points of Universe fire scattered above and all around.                 He thought again of the lost glow and canvas of sky painted in the rising and dying of day […]

                “Why did the ancients speak in parables?” James asked.  “Why didn’t they just say plain what they meant and wanted understood?”                 Eli listened then replied, “For the same reason men speak them in parts of the world today and why we may too, again, in time.”                 “Why?” James questioned.                 “We mistake […]