The Breath-Taker by Carrie Hiller

Well, for most of you, summer is over and school has started. Some of you may already be ready for summer. So for everyone who has the school blues, I have a remedy! Here's a story to take you back to summer camp....

Strapping my white helmet painfully over my head, I walk towards the one-foot tall plank platform. I check my harnesses next - they are tight and secure. Perhaps a little too tight, but better safe than sorry.

"I need two spotters!" the counselor monitoring the rope swing called the Breath-taker calls. Two of my friends, similarly decked in harnesses, stride forward. As I climb the rickety ladder to be attached to a rope, their arms are extended upward to catch me if I fall.

The counselor double-checks all of my harnesses, then attaches the rope that everyone will pull me up with. "Everyone go to the rope!" she yells. "Now, Carrie is going to say, 'Spotters ready?' And you will say, 'Ready!' She will say, 'Trusting,' and you will reply, 'Trust us, Carrie.' Then you will all pull the rope."

After a moment I repeat what I am supposed to say. The ladder is taken out from under me. I feel myself suspended ten feet into the air. Suddenly the rope jerks, and I begin to go up. Now I am twenty feet high. Now twenty-five feet, and thirty. Forty feet, fifty....

Someone yells, "You're at the top!" I open my eyes quickly; the ground spins beneath me. The height, probably seventy-five feet, makes me dizzy with fear and excitement all at the same time, and I immediately clamp my eyes shut.

I clutch the harness straps near my shoulders, only to hold on to something. As if it will keep me from falling off of the rope. Taking a deep breath, I shout, "One, two, three, Breath-taker!" Then, I yank the small rope at my side, which disconnects me from the pulley rope, and I plummet down, hanging merely from a cable. As I swing diagonally toward the platform, I open my eyes quickly, to see that I am about to crash - Whoosh! I miss it by inches (or perhaps a foot or two). Then I swing up again. Soon I am falling back down again, and up, and down, like the pendulum on a clock, all the while clinging to the harness' shoulder straps.

Just when I have a sick churning in my belly and can stand it no longer, the counselor hits her forearm against my leg, to slow me down. I go up and down once more; again, she hits my legs.

All of my muscles are still taught as I come to a halt. The ladder is put in front of me once more, so with trembling hands and knocking knees I carefully climb down.

Shaking, I unbuckle my helmet and unstrap my harnesses while walking over to my friends. They bombard me with questions.

"How was it?"

"Why'd you close your eyes the whole time?"

"Did you like it?"

Now, all in all, I must say it was pretty fun. And the name truly fits it, for it really does take your breath away.

Clubs

Hello S.J. readers!

What do you think about adding a new aspect to The Serendipity Journal?

Well, we thought to make the blog a little more fun, we could form clubs. This kind of club is a good kind, and it also is only an idea, don't get us wrong.

Listen to our thoughts and see what you think.

1. Anyone, no matter what, can join.

2. They will be to inspire others and get inspired yourself.

3. If none of you readers like them, we can take them away.

It's that simple.

Let us give you an example;

I (Sage) am going to start this new idea by making a club myself.

It will be a Peanut Butter Lovers club! Anyone can join this club.

Mostly it will consist of favorite recipes from readers, but other stuff is great too!

We might want to start a Poetry club where people submit their favorite poems and ones they have written.

(Do you mostly get the idea?)

If you have an idea for a S.J. club (we will call them S.J.C.s to make it easier.), just email us at serendipityjournal@gmail.com and Carrie and I will approve them and put up a post about is A.S.A.P! Have fun with this!

Your friends at the Serendipity Journal,

Sage Anderson and Carrie Hiller

The Third Debate

Welcome, Readers! 

Once again, the time has come for the infamous debate question! There are two questions to this debate that tie together. As always, your answer is strictly up to your opinion, especially this one. Here it is:

Why do you think Jesus, after he performed a miracle, told the person that he healed not to tell anyone what had happened? (For example, after healing a deaf man, 'Jesus commanded them not to tell anyone. But the more he did so, the more they kept talking about it.' - Mark 7:36) But even after he told them (commanded them), they still talked about it. Why do you think that is?

Thanks for reading, and let the discussion commence!

Sincerely,

Carrie H. and Sage A. 

 for the Serendipity Journal

Summer Action-reported from the perspective of Agent Sage

Disclaimer: To all whom this may concern: this allegory is not intended to offend, hurt or otherwise render any victim helpless. It is strictly for entertainment, fun and other random purposes.

Note: No real names have been used in the making of this story. These actions have been taken to protect and guard the real identities of the under-cover characters. Thank you.

-Begin Report-

7/09

Agent Sage Anderson signing in:

I love the smell of summer! What makes it even more wonderful is when there is something else to smell; action and adventure! Let me tell you about my summer adventure this week.

First, you have to understand that I have a friend named Connie. She is my age and a great friend. Connie loves soccer, in fact, she absolutely adores it! Her whole summer is packed with practices and games. (She is quite a player too! That girl can kick the ball high enough to be out of sight and all the way across the entire field! She is an amazing player.) She only has one brother named Will who also loves sports, but he plays LaCrosse. Their family also has a dog with a food name, which I think is very sweet!

Connie and I have been getting together to play some tag some mornings this week. Although this might not seem very interesting to you now, just listen please. On Wednesday of this week, Connie told me how she had really enjoyed the awesome games of tag we have had together.

Pause the story please, sorry, but you also need to know that I have been getting letters randomly in my mailbox from someone named Wynter. I think this person sent me about five, I really don't remember though. I had no clue for a while who this was, but when I find a pen name, I intend to find out about who the pen name belongs to.

Now, back to the story.

When we were walking home, I told her about those letters I was getting. She told me she hadn't heard of such a thing ever happening to someone in our neighborhood. I asked her if she had gotten any of them or sent any anonymous letters in the past. She replied with a definite no, and then gave me a sort-of sheepish look that was trying to be hidden......but that didn't work for me. I knew right away who this mysterious Wynter was, and why Connie had posed as her.

Later in the walk, Connie tried to cover it up by saying something about how she just remembered right then that she had gotten some letters from this "Wynter". I just played along and pretended like I believed her, but I still was positive Wynter was Connie.

For those of you who may be wondering what I did to let Connie know that I knew she was acting as Wynter, and totally turn her in to the Department Of Using A Fake Name Towards Your Friend And Not Telling Her It Is You (DOUAFNTYFANTHIIY), listen to this, I didn't turn her in. Yep, you heard me right, I didn't turn her in; I wrote a story.

So Wynter, (you know who you are) this summer I not only smell action and adventure, but I also smell something burning...because you are so toast!

Agent Sage Anderson signing out.

-End Report-

Answer to the first debate

Ok, here is our opinion on what the answer is to, "Can science prove anything?"

There are many things we know about science. However, since the world is constantly 

under change, it is difficult to prove things. If data used to support a theory or law changes, that theory or law is disproved. What was once "proved by science" is not any longer. 

At one point, science "proved" that we would never go to outer space, walk on the moon, fly faster than the speed of sound, but you know what? We have done all of those things and more!  Science in and of itself cannot give us sound, unchanging answers to things such as that. That is why we base our beliefs on the Bible, God's word, because it does not change and never will.

Sage Anderson and Carrie Hiller

The Second Debate!

Hello, Everyone!

Yes, the time has come again for a debate! The answer to the previous question will be answered directly.

And now, the question is about the 4th of July. What was your favorite part about celebrating America's Independence Day? We hope you did not go to Wal-Mart prior to celebrating.

Also, which term do you use? Independence Day or the 4th of July?

Please feel free to talk about others' comments and leave comments of your own. This is not very much of a debate but we would like to know how your 4th of July (or Independence Day) was.

Have a wonderfully fantabulously great day!

Carrie H. and Sage A.

Fourth of July, sea salt. Huh? Wow!

The other day we needed some Fourth of July flair, so we decided to go to wal-mart. For those of you who are against wal-mart, please just listen to the story. Walking into any store you always have an expectation of what you will see, our expectation was to be blasted with the seasonal stuff. You know like Easter they have bunnies, baskets, eggs and glitter. Christmas they have all of that and more, but that day when we opened the doors of the blue wonderland, we had an utter disappointment, no red white and blue!! AHH! What were we going to do? This was traumatic!

After overcoming our first initial shock, we advanced  on the newly finished, squeaky, laminate tiles.  We turned and saw a lady hanging clothes on a rack. If we were smart enough, we would have turned back and ran away screaming right then. We didn't know better, so we proceeded. 

She was doing something with a rack and clothes but I really don't remember that part in detail. Her Blue shirt and larger glasses made her quite the wal-mart type. My mom wanted to find this Fourth stuff right away and get out of there, so she started the conversation.

"Hi, we are looking for some Fourth of July decorations. Usually wal-mart has all of that seasonal stuff right when you walk in, but we didn't see any!" 

"Oh, you are looking for that, do you want the kind of sea salt that you use to make ice cream, or just regular kitchen sea salt?" 

"Um hm, yeah..." This was a little bit strange.

"Oh, you don't have any of that yet, nope!" The employee said with a nice grin on her face.

"Ok, thank you!"

We just walked away trying not to bust out laughing while we were still in earshot.

And this, reader, is why you don't ask questions to wal-mart employee.

The End

What a Real Hero Is by Carrie Hiller

Note: Before you read this you must understand that, because I am a Christian, I could not think of any ways to write this without mentioning any Christian attributes in a hero.

What do you first think of when someone says the word ‘hero’? Spiderman? The Incredibles? C. S. Lewis? A movie star, or a writer, or a singer? That is what most people think of. But what about your best friend? Or perhaps a family member or a teacher?

This is what I think a hero is. 

A hero is someone who genuinely cares about what you are feeling, and when they ask, “How are you?” they actually mean it. They are there for you, not only when you are sad or depressed, but when you just want to talk about life. A real hero will look out for you and love you no matter what.

 

A hero makes you feel good and brightens your day. They are happy and constantly have a smile on their face. It doesn’t matter if you are popular or not. They don’t care what other people think about them because they are doing what’s right.

 

So, you may be thinking, how do I do that? You can try really really hard to be nice to everyone you meet and let them know you care, but even then, it’s difficult. There is always that one kid at school or one person you work with that just doesn’t click with everyone else. This is where faith comes in. I have found that if you have God in your life you are automatically happier, more joyful. This makes it so much easier to be a hero in the ways I discussed, to love and care for people. 

Some think only famous people can be heros, but they were normal once too. With God, all things are possible. You can be a hero. Either that, or you can just sit on your couch and wish you could be like them. You choose what you want to do.