Six Word Story (107)

What does the word intimacy stir within you? For each of us it’s probably quite different, and yet the same, with flashes of moments spent with lovers or dreams of the ones we wish had wandered into our lives to stay but didn’t. But is that what intimacy really is?

I have learned it is only a small scratch on this word’s surface.

Intimacy needs have nothing to do with physical love or desire at all. True intimacy between life partners goes much deeper than alone sex could ever take you, and often the intimacy of friendship is much healthier.

It’s something every human soul longs for at our core.

Reaching for it makes us vulnerable.

Vulnerability is terrifying, but without it, true intimacy can never be achieved.

Have you experienced true intimacy? Are you still looking for it?

I would love to hear anything about your experiences and thoughts about it in the comments below. It’s a topic I think a lot about.

Copyright ©2023 Mary Grace van der Kroef

Photo sourced from Unsplash.com


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Six Word Story (106)

I know the staircase has a landing, even when I can’t see it. There is no such thing as a staircase without a landing for staircases are meant as a road to take you up or down to ARRIVE at your destination.

Still, if I stand at the bottom and look up through the maze of curving handrails, it looks like that walkway is neverending. What a weight that perception holds…

I can feel it even when I know it can’t be true.

Perceptions, they can be so deceptive.

But that weight can be overcome by the knowledge that A staircase HAS to have an ending added to information gathered along the journey once we start the climb. Do we pass floors? Do they have numbers to tell? What information did I gather before entering the building, like how many floors are there?

By doing this, we can turn a 2-dimensional perception into a 3-dimensional prediction/map.

Don’t let the weight of perception alone crush you. Reach out, look around, and ask for help.

Copyright ©2023 Mary Grace van der Kroef

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Faithfulness

To be a constant
unwavering mass

To last

To hold knowledge
open handed

honestly

To choose a path
and follow through

thoroughly

Never giving up
Never backing down

faithfully

Copyright ©2023 Mary Grace van der Kroef


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Six Word Story (103)

Safety is something we all look for and when we find it we hold on with abandon. But is safety always, safe? Too quickly it can become complacency and compliance becomes stagnant, eating away at us as below, rotting our foundations.

What protects can become a cage if we are not careful.

What preserves that balance?

The knowledge that sometimes it’s better to let go than to hold on. Vigilance, and an open ear, waiting for the words.

“It’s time to move.”

I don’t always hear them on time, often I even ignore them.

Do you?

Copyright ©2023 Mary Grace van der Kroef

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Six Word Story (99)

The amazing intricacy of the world we live in is staggering.

The science, the art, the spiritual glue, it all connects and rolls together to the ticking of seconds.

It can seem eternal. As our brains measure time, maybe it is.

I do believe that someday there will be an end and time will run out, just as water evaporates from a cup.

But as evaporation is a kind of transformation, our earth, and us, will not really cease but simply change.

I believe God is the one who wrote the rules for these systems as he creates art.

What will he have us change into when the time comes?

I don’t know. But I can dream.

Copyright ©2023 Mary Grace van der Kroef


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Six Word Story (98)

What sticks to you like glitter?

What small thing gives you a smile in it unexpectedly glints at you from a tabletop, or child’s cheek?

What makes you groan with annoyance when dumped in a pile, hang hangs around for months only to bring a tear to your eye when you remember that sweet soul you miss?

Glitter, I often don’t like you, but many are the things you can teach me.

Copyright ©2023 Mary Grace van der Kroef

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Six Word Story (97)

Life is a grinding down of moments, of mass.

Nature takes those fragments and transforms them into something new.

This happens with people too, physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

It’s so hard to see past the decay, the destruction.

But if we are brave enough to try, if we trust God has a plan in the middle of grief, we will be shown immeasurable beauty and potential.

He made nature this way for a reason after all.

©2022 Mary Grace van der Kroef

Photo sourced from unsplash.com


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December Night

Mantle of lights above my head
fixed on a map of midnight blue
shining silver blue and red
so close, yet eons overhead.

They only wink with my own blink
a steady stream of glistening
shining bright, yet light, I see
is all ancient history.

A vastness more than mind can hold
yet I behold December’s night
stand on my globe of living rock
that spins with the celestial clock.

Count the numbers, multiply,
as the universe flies by,
here I stand a single speck
in heaven’s sum.

December night, clear, bright,
gifted glimpse of creations might
never a doubt in my mind
stargazing, meant to remind.

©Mary Grace van der Kroef 2020


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Six Word Story (90)

In my experience, life rarely unfolds in a straight line, or how we expect it to.

We wonder back and forth while wondering if there is a purpose to it all, and when will we ‘arrive’.

I have also noticed that the paths my elders have walked, have laid down pathways.

They make the back and forth a bit easier to bear. They assure me that others have walked this way ahead of me.

Even when I walk off the beaten path, it reminds me that my own footsteps are marking possibilities trails for those who journey behind me.

When I look down the steep hillside, I am thankful for all that back and forth.

©2022 Mary Grace van der Kroef

Photo sourced from Unsplash.com

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Autumn’s Song

Listen to the crowning leaves
Their glory days proceed with ease,
The wind gives to them a voice.
They shout, with shaking leaves, rejoice.
First time snow has run away
Autumn has another day.

Leaves of gold shimmering shine
Their dying days a heaven shrine
They do not weep as down they fall
They lay their royal carpet for all
And all can play in piles of gold
Rich or poor, young or old.

Soon their gold will turn to brown
But in their cries there is no frown
It’s well known they’ve earned their rest
A golden crown marks them as blessed
The first time snow has come and gone
So autumn sings us one last song.

©Mary Grace van der Kroef 2019


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