by Peter Leavell, @PeterLeavell

The nurse pressed the marker’s cold tip against my skin and drew a black circle. My arm shivered as she tapped one dot, then another, and finally a ‘U.’ Because I was five years old without hope of fat or muscle, she drew another circle close to the first. And another. And another. They had to all fit.

And another.

“We’re making smiley faces, and we’ll give each one a nose.”

A ruse to try and cover the pain.

Was it a dozen circles on one arm, or twenty-five on the other? Numbers were hard.

Preschool sleeve tattoos.

Cursed allergies, worried parents, and giddy doctors eager to help a miserable child brought me to a high-rise in Denver, and as the nurse punctured my epidermis and dermis with tiny beakers of serum, I cried. The nose indeed flared. And again. Again. Again.

Again.

At what point did the pain stop? When did the fear subside? I studied the Denver skyline, a thick glob of scum covering the 1980s capitalist playland. The manmade fog was killing me.

I survived. And flourished.

Thirty years later, I stood in the window of a high-rise and looked over Denver’s vacuumed skyline, the sun settling in for the night and pulling up the Rocky Mountains as a blanket to hide under. Thirty years. Of school. Then marriage. Honeymoon in Denver. Ten more years of allergy shots. Management. A manuscript. Dreams.

In this moment, I was a man in one of a million windows. A man with a phone pressed tight to his ear.

“They have my book cover.”

My wife was quiet for a moment. “What?”

“I won the publishing contract and the $20,000.”

She almost fainted.

Jerry B. Jenkins and Worthy Publishing made my dreams come true.

Circles

We start school at a single location, and we leave in the same location. What has changed? You. You’ve taken on rigorous studies and all you have to show for it is a piece of paper that says you can think critically, speak intelligently, and contribute. You’ve completed a circle, starting and ending at the same place, but yet, you’re not the same.

The Denver skyline is my circle. What is your circle?

You’re on a circle, a journey, and life changes. Circumstances don’t stay the same forever, no matter how horrible the procedures or glorious the moment. Events will get better. Life will get worse. Change is constant. Attitude is controlled. Hope is a well to draw sips of strength. Love is worth fighting for. All families are weird. You are unique. You are a blessing. You are kind.

Our circle is birth and death and all the little rings inside.

In The Prelude, William Wordsworth wrote about spots of time. He pointed out moments that made him the person he was. Why he wrote the way he wrote.

Embrace the spots of time that make you special, experienced, scarred and beautiful. Your writing will reflect truth, hope, joy, kindness, and most of all, you.

Proverbs 3:5-6 ESV

5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
    and do not lean on your own understanding.
6 In all your ways acknowledge him,
    and he will make straight your paths.

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Dino Hunters: Discovery in the Desert

Siblings Josh and Abby Hunter don’t believe their parents’ death was an accident. After taking pictures of the most incredible find of the 1920’s—proof humans and dinosaurs lived together in the same time and place—desperate outlaws armed with tommy guns are on their tail! Only Josh and Abby know where the proof is hidden—in the canyons of Arizona’s desert. When an intruder searches Josh and Abby’s bags inside their new home, the two convince their uncle, Dr. David Hunter, to return to the canyon and find the pictures they’d hidden. But the outlaws are just as eager to find the proof before Josh and Abby. Can Josh use his super-smart brain to outfox the villains in time? Will Abby’s incredible physical abilities stop full-grown men? And will their uncle believe them?
Dino Hunters is an apologetics-adventure series aimed at the middle reader to help them trust the Bible from the very first verse.