One of my
favorite things to do and one of the things I looked forward to as a kid was the
annual summer trip with my parents, usually just my dad, to the Washington
County Fair. Now, it’s not the biggest fair in the world, but when you’re a
kid, a red snow cone, a corn dog, some cotton candy, and a Ferris Wheel, life
is good. Real good. Heck, I would even put up with going into the
animal barns to satisfy my dad as long as he’d take us.
Dad would give
us a couple of bucks and we’d try our luck throwing a softball at three bottles
and if we’d knock them down, we’d get a small prize. The catch was that to get one of the big
stuffed animals hanging from inside the canopy, we’d have to knock down the
three bottles a couple more times. Of
course we’d try, and my dad would stand back, fold his arms and smile, knowing
that it would be next to impossible to do.
In retrospect, I never saw more than one or two big stuffed animals
clutched in the arms of any of the fair goers, young, old or in between. No, I, and they, would usually just take home
the small prize.
Many times, the
small prize was a Kaleidoscope.
Made out of
plastic. Generally a bright color. Rarely bigger than the palm of your hand.
Made cheaply. Certainly not made to last. But I liked them just the same.
It wasn’t until
I was much older that I understood that the “pictures” in the Kaleidoscope were
formed by broken bits of paper. You’d
turn the Kaleidoscope a small turn and the little broken bits would form a geometrical
formation. You’d turn it another small
turn, and the little broken bits would form yet a different formation. And
another and another.
One after the
other. One pretty design, followed by another pretty design. All from a simple turn of the fingers and
wrist and all because the little broken bits worked just right.
Much later in
life, I saw some amazingly beautiful Kaleidoscopes made out of brass. Golden or
silver and much more heavy and sturdy than the little plastic ones we picked up
at the county fair. But the principle was the same. Little broken bits of many colors would shape
up and turn into a beautiful design with just the twist of one’s fingers.
I learned
something from the Kaleidoscope.
No matter how
torn the little bits, no matter how broken the little bits, each worked
together to form a beautiful design or picture with very little effort. It only
took the desire to use one’s fingers and a slight turn of the wrist to make it
happen. And happen again, and again, with each turn, with each twist.
We . . . all of
us . . . are much like the Kaleidoscope.
We come to work
each day, move into and out of each other’s lives with broken hearts, damaged
dreams, sometimes with torn spirits. We work with people, we work with kids,
who have equally broken hearts, damaged dreams, and with sometimes torn
spirits. Each of us. Every day.
Day after day.
But like the
Kaleidoscope, each of us, individually, and collectively, can be and are
beautiful. With just the turn of the fingers and a turn of the wrist, with very
little effort on our part, the broken, the damaged, the torn can be
beautiful. Because within our humble
frame, we are beautiful in spite of what others might say.
So as we enter
this very important season of giving and sharing, remember that the humble
plastic of our beings houses sometimes broken bits that become beautiful. Even
those of us who have shiny and pretty shells, have within us, broken and
damaged and torn parts. But each of us
can, with very little effort, help turn us . . . and each other . . . into the
beautiful designs we were meant to be, and more importantly, most assuredly, yes,
most assuredly, that which we are.
Something to think about . . .
To
My Readers:
In
time for the Holidays and Holiday Shopping . . .
From
An Enthusiastic Reader:
“These
are some of the most amazing books I have ever read. I'm working on the last
one now and have been waiting ever so impatiently for it to come out lol I
started with the prequel and the other ones were out already, with the
exception of the last one, which is now. From that book I went straight to
downloading the rest of them and read them back to back. I couldn't put it
down. If you are someone who likes to read I highly recommend these books!”
Book
Three, Splintered Lives:
A
14 year old boy has a price on his head, but he and his family don’t know it.
Their vacation turns into a trip to hell. Out gunned and outnumbered, can this
boy protect his father and brothers? Without knowing who these men are? Or how
many there are? Or when they might come for him? Book Three of the Lives
Trilogy, Splintered Lives, is now available in ebook and paperback on Amazon,
free on Kindle Unlimited. http://www.amazon.com/Splintered-Lives-Trilogy-Book-ebook/dp/B017RFXY9Y/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1447079283&sr=1-1&keywords=Splintered+Lives%2C+Joseph+Lewis
And
if you need to catch up on the series, the previous books of the Lives Trilogy
are available:
Book
One, Stolen Lives:
Two
thirteen year old boys are abducted off a safe suburban street. Kelliher and
his team of FBI agents has 24 hours to find them or they’ll end up like all the
others- dead!
Book
Two, Shattered Lives:
Six
men escaped and are out for revenge. The boys, recently freed from captivity,
are in danger and so are their families. The FBI has no clues, no leads, and
nothing to go on and because of that, cannot protect them.
Prequel,
Taking Lives:
FBI
Agent Pete Kelliher and his partner search for the clues behind the bodies of
six boys left in various and remote parts of the country. Even though they live
in separate parts of the country, the lives of FBI Kelliher, 11 year old Brett
McGovern, and 11 year old George Tokay are separate pieces of a puzzle. The two
boys become interwoven with the same thread that Pete Kelliher holds in his
hand. The three of them are on a collision course and when that happens, their
futures grow dark and dreadful as each search for a way out.
