He heard the crack echo in the late afternoon about a mile away.

His heart started

racing and he bolted into a full sprint. "It wasn't a gunshot, it wasn't a
gunshot," he repeated under his breathlessness as he continued to sprint.
The young man wanted a role model. He looked long and hard in his youth, but that
role model never materialized. His only choice was to embrace all the people in his
life he didn't want to be like.
She considered the birds to be her friends. She'd put out food for them each
morning and then she'd watch as they came to the feeders to gorge themselves for
the day. She wondered what they would do if something ever happened to her. Would
they miss the meals she provided if she failed to put out the food one morning?
He was an expert but not in a discipline that anyone could fully appreciate. He
knew how to hold the cone just right so that the soft server ice-cream fell into it
at the precise angle to form a perfect cone each and every time. It had taken years
to perfect and he could now do it without even putting any thought behind it.
Nobody seemed to fully understand the beauty of this accomplishment except for the
new worker who watched in amazement.
The chair sat in the corner where it had been for over 25 years. The only
difference was there was someone actually sitting in it. How long had it been since
someone had done that? Ten years or more he imagined. Yet there was no denying the
presence in the chair now.
Don't be scared. The things out there that are unknown aren't scary in themselves.
They are just unknown at the moment. Take the time to know them before you list
them as scary. Then the world will be a much less scary place for you.
She looked at her little girl who was about to become a teen. She tried to think
back to when the girl had been younger but failed to pinpoint the exact moment when
she had become a little too big to pick up and carry. It hit her all at once. She
was no longer a little girl and she stood there speechless with fear, sadness, and
pride all running through her at the same time.