Our goal should be to live life in radical amazement. ….get up in the morning and look at the world in a way that takes nothing for granted. Everything is phenomenal; everything is incredible; never treat life casually. To be spiritual is to be amazed. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel
Month: August 2025
Flash Fiction: She Left a Note, a Key, and a Locked Box: Now What?
You thought the past was buried. Then a single line of ink and a key dropped on your doorstep. Some stories won’t stay dead.
🥊 First Line:
The note wasn’t addressed to me, but the key had my name etched in blood-red ink.
I found the envelope wedged beneath my front door, just as the morning light cracked the horizon. No return address. No explanation. Inside, a short note: “It’s time.” That’s it. No signature. And tucked behind the slip of paper—an old brass key, warm to the touch as if someone had just held it. My name, carved into its spine in jagged strokes, stopped me cold. I hadn’t seen that handwriting in fourteen years. Not since the trial. Not since I swore I’d never open another door connected to her. But here I was, key in hand, heart pounding like a war drum. I knew where it went. I knew what waited at the end of the hallway in my childhood home: the locked box in the attic. I’d spent a lifetime pretending it didn’t matter. Now it was all that did.
❓ Three Questions to Unlock Eye-Popping Flash Fiction:
- What secret does the box contain—and who left it for the narrator to find now?
- Why did the narrator try to bury the past—and what unfinished truth is forcing its return?
- What is the price of opening the box: redemption, revenge, or something darker?
🧠 Day 5: Stress and the Brain—Why You Can’t Think Straight
Can’t focus? Can’t sleep? Can’t remember where you put your phone? Blame your stress-soaked brain.
Stress doesn’t just affect your body—it rewires your brain. Chronic stress elevates cortisol, which impairs memory, focus, and emotional regulation. It shrinks the prefrontal cortex (decision-making center) while overactivating the amygdala (fear center), making you more reactive and less rational (McEwen, 2007). That’s why stressful seasons feel foggy, confusing, or like you’re constantly “off.” Understanding this mental fog is key—your brain is protecting you, but at a cost.
Action Step
Reflect: What tasks or situations have become harder when you’re under stress? Write down 2–3 changes you’ve noticed in focus, memory, or sleep.
Why We Keep Repeating History (and How to Finally Stop)
Marcus Tullius Cicero warned us over 2,000 years ago—and we’re still making the same six mistakes. Maybe it’s time we finally paid attention.
The Roman orator, Marcus Tullius Cicero, lived from 106 to 43 B.C. I read the following quote by him and wondered if human beings ever learn their lessons. I wondered if we are condemned to continually repeat the past because we refuse to learn from the past. What applies on a much larger global scale also applies on a personal level. Do we condemn ourselves by refusing to learn from our past mistakes? When we begin to question ourselves, we open the door to change and improvement. It takes heaps of courage to dare to question oneself and what one believes. Often times that shakes our very foundation. Yet, in shaking aour very foundation, we may discover the truth.
Six mistakes mankind keeps making century after century: Believing that personal gain is made by crushing others; Worrying about things that cannot be changed or corrected; Insisting that a thing is impossible because we cannot accomplish it; Refusing to set aside trivial preferences; Neglecting development and refinement of the mind; Attempting to compel others to believe and live as we do. Marcus Tullius Cicero
Points to Ponder:
- Which of Cicero’s six mistakes do you find most relevant in your own life today?
- What “trivial preferences” might be keeping you from deeper self-awareness or connection?
- What would it look like to truly refine your mind—not just fill it?
- Is there a belief or habit you’ve never dared to question? What if you did?
- Are you forcing others to believe or live as you do—even subtly? Why?
This Heart That Flutters Near My Heart ~ A Poem by James Joyce
Between Kiss and Kiss: The Fragile Riches of a Heart in Love
Love that flutters close to your heart is rarely loud—it speaks in hushes, treasures memories, and asks only to be held, even if briefly.
This Heart That Flutters Near My Heart
James Joyce
This heart that flutters near my heart
My hope and all my riches is,
Unhappy when we draw apart
And happy between kiss and kiss:
My hope and all my riches — – yes! — –
And all my happiness.
For there, as in some mossy nest
The wrens will divers treasures keep,
I laid those treasures I possessed
Ere that mine eyes had learned to weep.
Shall we not be as wise as they
Though love live but a day?
💔
Poignant Reflection:
James Joyce captures something deeply human in this short, aching poem—the nearness of love and the quiet dread of its distance. The heart he speaks of flutters, not pounds. It is delicate, not loud. It’s a love that lives in the space between kisses, between partings and reunions. And yet, it holds all his riches, all his happiness.
In a single breath, Joyce shifts from sweetness to sorrow. He compares love to a wren’s nest—humble, hidden, and full of treasures. He reminds us that even before we learned to cry, we were storing precious things in others. In this way, love becomes a kind of sacred gamble. We give away the best of us to something that might vanish.
But is that not wisdom, too? Even if love lasts only a day, is it not worth having loved at all?
🤔 Three Questions to Dive Deeper:
- What does your heart treasure most between “kiss and kiss”—and do you protect it or offer it freely?
- Have you ever let love flutter near your heart, knowing it might only stay a little while?
- Are you willing to treasure what was, even if it didn’t last?
Light for the Journey: It’s Never Too Late: Start Over, Become Who You Were Meant to Be
You’re not stuck. You’re not finished. And no matter where you are in life, you still get to rewrite the story.
For what it’s worth, it’s never too late to be whoever you want to be. I hope you live a life you’re proud of and if you find that you’re not, I hope you have the strength to start over. ~ F. Scott Fitzgerald
Reflection:
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s words aren’t just comforting—they’re revolutionary. It’s never too late to be whoever you want to be. That means your past doesn’t own you. Mistakes don’t define you. The life you’ve lived so far doesn’t put a cap on the one still waiting. Pride in our life doesn’t come from perfection—it comes from courage, honesty, and the willingness to begin again. If you’re not proud of the road you’ve walked, don’t stay parked in regret. Take a breath. Change direction. The world needs the version of you that’s still unfolding. There is grace in starting over. And there is strength in choosing it. Today can be Day One—not because yesterday failed, but because hope still calls your name.
Flash Fiction Prompt: She Didn’t Scream—But the Silence Hit Like a Punch
Some stories don’t start with a scream. Some begin with a silence so loud it shatters everything you thought you knew.
🧨 First Line:
The coffee cup shattered in her hand, but she didn’t flinch—and she didn’t scream.
✍️ Starting Paragraph:
The room held its breath. Shards of ceramic scattered across the tile like tiny graves, but she just stood there, eyes fixed on the hallway. A small streak of blood curled from her palm down her wrist, dripping soundlessly onto the floor. Across the table, James knew something had happened—but what? Her silence wasn’t blank. It was sharp, deliberate. Like a locked door holding back a hurricane. He watched her closely, noting the way her shoulders were just slightly too still, too precise. She always trembled when she was scared, but now she was still as a blade. Then she spoke—three words, quiet and calm. Words that flipped the kitchen into another world. “They found him.” James stood slowly, suddenly cold. For months they’d lived like ghosts, hiding from a past that had never been buried deep enough. But the past, it seemed, had just knocked on the front door. And it wasn’t knocking twice.
❓ Three Questions to Spark Flash Fiction Greatness:
- Who exactly did they find—and why was he hidden in the first place?
- What truth has been buried, and what price will be paid to keep it there?
- Is her silence strength, trauma, or something far more dangerous?
💥 Day 4: The Biology of Burnout—How Stress Disrupts Your Body Systems
Stress doesn’t whisper. It sends memos to every part of your body—especially the ones you ignore.
When stress becomes chronic, your body’s systems begin to misfire. Cortisol floods your bloodstream, immune responses weaken, and digestion slows to a crawl. This domino effect can trigger migraines, IBS, weight gain, and cardiovascular strain. One meta-analysis found that people under high stress had a 43% higher risk of dying from heart disease (Steptoe & Kivimäki, 2013). Your body is wise—it rings the alarm. But if you’re not listening, the warning bells may eventually become symptoms. Today is about understanding the biology behind your body’s “stress mess.”
Action Step:
Look at your stress audit and write a brief paragraph on how your body responds to stressors—notice patterns.
Next Play, Best Play: What Football Taught Me About Letting Go of Regret
A missed tackle. A wrong word. A bad decision. You can live in the past—or line up for the next play.
I watched an interview clip of an American football player. During the interview the reporter asked the player, “What do you think about when you make a bad play?” The player didn’t hesitate, “I think about the next play.” I paused the video and put the player’s quote in my note app. I thought about how applicable the quote is to our lives. We’re all going to have moments of failure. We’re all going to have moments when we said something we wished we hadn’t or did something we wished we didn’t. Instead of diving headfirst into the swamp of regrets, why not apologize or make amends where appropriate and move on to the next play. Another player said it a bit differently. When he was asked, “What were your best moments?” He didn’t hesitate, “My best moment is my next moment.” The same holds true for you and me.
🧠 Points to Ponder:
- How often do you replay your worst moments instead of preparing for your best?
- What “next play” in your life is waiting for your full attention?
- Can you forgive yourself as quickly as an athlete resets after a bad play?
- Are you measuring your life by your past errors—or your next chance to get it right?
- What would your life look like if your best moment was always the one right in front of you?
All Nature Has a Feeling ~ John. Clare
The Whisper of Eternal Life: Listening to Nature’s Sacred Pulse
Before there were books, before there were sermons, there was the whisper of the woods. In nature’s silence, John Clare finds something immortal.
All Nature Has a Feeling
John Clare
All nature has a feeling: woods, fields, brooks
Are life eternal: and in silence they
Speak happiness beyond the reach of books;
There’s nothing mortal in them; their decay
Is the green life of change; to pass away
And come again in blooms revivified.
Its birth was heaven, eternal is its stay,
And with the sun and moon shall still abide
Beneath their day and night and heaven wide.
🌱 Reflection:
In a world that moves faster than our hearts can follow, John Clare invites us to slow down and listen—to the woods, the fields, the brooks. His poem reminds us that nature is not merely background scenery to our lives, but a living, breathing presence. There is no final death in the forest; there is only change, rebirth, and quiet endurance. Even in decay, nature pulses with the promise of return, of green life stirring beneath the surface. This reflection can bring comfort in times of loss: what feels like an end may be a beginning in disguise. As the sun and moon rise and fall, so too does life — not vanishing, but transforming, waiting for us to notice its soft, enduring rhythm.
🤔 Three Questions to Ponder:
- Have you ever felt a moment in nature that spoke to you without words?
- How might our understanding of grief shift if we embraced decay as part of life’s eternal cycle?
- What part of your life is quietly transforming, even if you can’t yet see it blooming?
