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The Gift of Being Small

Stories are the ornaments in our lives

Taran March @ Quality Digest
Wed, 12/19/2018 - 12:03
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I tend to be a holiday slacker, but this year I’m really sitting it out. No fingering handmade crafts at pop-up fairs, no high-calorie marathons with my oven, not even a sprig of holly on my door. I’m hibernating, waiting for spring, waiting for the ashes, in what used to be my town, to feed the bulbs and trees and produce a technicolor renewal in a few months.

There have been so many stories about the Paradise fire, each as detailed and individual as a snowflake. Each, you would think, impossible. But there are shared elements. The hurried round-up of animals and items; the tense gridlock of a night-dark town emptying on an otherwise sunny morning; surreal, snapshot images amid swirling smoke; and always, everywhere, the flames. Little flames scurrying along the ground in haphazard lines. Average flames gnawing at shrubs and dog houses. And great, towering demon flames, whirling and dancing and destroying.

Everyone who was there knows that story and can embellish it. Some can’t stop picturing it; some have extinguished it as thoroughly as the 5,000 fire fighters who fought the blaze.

 …

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Comments

Submitted by Saleem Ansari (not verified) on Wed, 12/19/2018 - 08:55

The story - The gift of being SMALL

Great story; thanks. I just shred it on my LinkedIn page.

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Submitted by Gloria Joseph (not verified) on Wed, 12/19/2018 - 09:08

Bless all those affected by

Bless all those affected by the fires and hurricanes this year.  It places permanent scars on people and animals.  We pray for healing and the fortitude to deal with each day of recovery.

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Submitted by Pamela (not verified) on Wed, 12/19/2018 - 09:52

Wonderful story. I'm so

Wonderful story. I'm so impressed. We came with nothing into this world and we'll leave with nothing. A reality check!

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Submitted by Nelly (not verified) on Wed, 12/19/2018 - 10:13

~

Thank you for this - periodically necessary and seasonally timely, a humbling reminder that at the end of the day, we are all in this giant process called life...together.

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Submitted by Jerry (not verified) on Wed, 12/19/2018 - 10:45

The Gift of the Season -- --

The Gift of the Season -- -- OPTIMISM

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