My Heart is Too Fragile, My Thrills Too Cheap

Things that broke my heart today:

* The writer who accepted her payment from The Advocate and, crumpling the bills in her palm, whispered, “Praise Jesus”

* Strains of “Day Dream Believer” returning me to a time when the whole future opened up like a long golden tunnel

* The woman staring out the window, tears wet on her cheeks, as another writer — she who can be tough as nails — read a poem spontaneously dedicated to her

* My friend, seated apart from the group, the light dim in his eyes as he said, “I’m okay.”

* The writer’s waiting face, until I had to tell him he wasn’t in this month’s Advocate. Graciously, he carried the heavy box of folders to my car.

* Walking through the Booksellers at Laurelwood and catching a glimpse of the days when I carried a light-hearted belief that soon my novel would be published

* The yellow sky

Things that made me smile today:

* Tom Prewitt, Jr.

* The group trying to kill a horsefly

* The hard-boiled comment – “and to get rid of rat turds” – following a beautiful metaphor about why we clean unseen corners of our lives

* The Rhodes College student who mysteriously found us and, quiet as always, wrote

* My Lenten reading where Luke writes, “And this is your sign: you’ll find the baby wrapped up and lying in a grain-crib” – yeah, that says “Savior of the World” to me

Here’s to creative synthesis . . .