Posts

...and he found himself alone on a gravel road.

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Open your arms to the pain and suffering of life, it will illuminate the beauty of being human.

Rapprochement: The Reestablishment of Harmony.

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Inherent in Man is a desire to test boundaries, accumulate achievement, and manifest significance in the world. These exercises, when done equitably, reframe perspective…and Man rejoices in the adjustment.

A Love Note. From God.

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On particularly rough days, when doubt is easily harbored and I'm certain I can't possibly go on, I like to remind myself that my record for getting through bad days so far is 100%...and that's pretty good. I took a rough little tumble...then I got up! I remain undefeated! Challenges must be viewed as opportunities, portals for thoughtful reflection and personal growth. This gift came with a love note: "Joel, slow down. You're welcome, God." Such humor and irony!

The Gravel Road

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One stone about With a beautiful view Just a rock in the road At piece with you. We accumulate  Disseminate And annotate In aggregate. We touch, we talk Leave a place to walk For tomorrow's traveler We turn to chalk. 

I came upon a Gate.

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Riding through life one day…I came upon a gate. Fashioned from scrap metal and finished in Mother Nature's signature patina of rust, it was a long forgotten discouragement, left behind after the coal was gone. Helplessly named Private Property, a custodian assigned to limit and control access to something…or somewhere; all while freely sharing through a holey, windowed construct, the remote beauty and intrigue within. There, through her cold countenance, in a shroud of snowfall, a pearly path of ascension rolled and ranged ever up and out of view. Riding through life one day…I came upon a gate.

South State Street, Lewis, IN

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I don’t know why I was so unsettled; the end was inevitable. But still, there is something deep within us always surprised by change. Here today, gone tomorrow. Coasting down the slight grade on South State Street one September afternoon in 2015, I was moved to stop and take a picture. The bricks and mortar constituting the structure have stood for more or less 100 years. Thanks to a long-since changed demographic and the vicissitudes of time, the building was condemnable, making a last stand in what was once Lewis, Indiana’s business district. With roof missing, walls shifted and cracked, windows shuttered by plywood long turned grey, she spoke softly with the sadness of an unvisited grandmother. Earlier this fall while on my way home from somewhere I took a detour through the increasingly unfamiliar streets of Lewis. My grandparents, Helen and Titus, lived on the corner of E. Green Drive and S. State Street. During childhood, my summer job was to patrol these streets on