I’m sitting at work watching a marathon of Star Wars movies. It’s quiet at the youth shelter on the overnight shift and I can get a lot of things done. My only real distraction is the ticking clock on the living room wall. Clocks should be made to be silent, but it’s not my home and it’s not my clock, so I try to shut the noise out as best I can as I continue to think about the direction my life is now headed toward and how I’d like to get there.
Photo by Sandra Reddish
The first visitors to the area called the sandstone slabs resting upon their clay pillars, toadstools. The name stuck. Each year, thousands of people are drawn to western Nebraska to see the unique landscape known as Toadstool Geologic Park.
We walked across the valley together, but as we began traversing the field of tall grass, Paul and I started to separate from the pack of humans. Without saying a word, we both felt instinctively that being bunched up and near each other was a dangerous thing.
We all continued toward an outcropping of trees in the distance, maybe two hundred yards away. Our journey had taken us from our village through two valleys as we avoided other villages on the way. It was said, once we passed the field of tall grass, we would reach the river and then the hills of sand before we would be safe.
According to the stories, once we crossed the river, we would be safe, but no one ever returned from the hills of sand to be sure. Still, we had all decided to make the journey together.
One of the coolest things I attended as a spectator this summer was Panhandle Pride. Each year, for the past five years, friends, family, and strangers gather to celebrate old and new friendships and support the LGBTQ+ community.
The dragonflies dart in front of me. They are large and swift, but are careful not to be a nuisance. They rise and fall as they flutter through the air, searching for a perch in which to look for prey.
Every artist has a their own way of creating their masterpieces. Some sit in quiet rooms, diligently plugging away at the ideas in their head to make their ideas real. Others prefer the outdoors or public places. They also have ways of destroying pieces of their creation or completed projects. Each artist has their reasons for doing so. Rarely does the artist ever think about what the public or future generations will think about their actions.
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