Category: Creative Writing

The Girl on the Train (flash fiction)

Posted on by martyjreep in Creative Writing, Fiction, great fiction, Short Stories

To wait for the girl on the train. In my mind, I’ll do what the note says. I have a small notebook in my jacket pocket, and one of the pages in it says the same thing that my calendar does on the wall in the hallway.

We have the calendar on the wall so that we’ll remember to look at what day it is. It’s also to remember special days and special people. Where’s my special girl? Hmm. Oh, right. She’s coming to meet me at the station. I’ll go soon to the station to meet her there, too – to pick her up and bring her home. She’s been gone for a very long time, and I miss her. All will be better soon, though, because she’s arriving today.

I’m here, now, waiting just as I said I would. Where is it? Where’s the train? My watch tells me I’m right on time, but maybe I’m a little early. Watches do that, you know. They jump ahead magically at night when you’re not looking, or when you’re driving down the highway paying attention to road signs and whatnot instead of paying attention to them. A jealous watch? Can watches be jealous? I don’t think so. I don’t think that’s possible. That would be weird.

What’s that? A horn? A faint sound that sounds like it’s a’way’off in the distance coming down the mountains between the peaks, getting ready to get here where I am and where these other people are standing around waiting. I hope none of them are wondering about my jealous watch. But if they are, oh well. It happens.

It’s coming closer. Coming around the curve, still just a bit away – but much closer than before. The train slows as it approaches the platform, and I wave – at no one in particular and at everyone in general. But I’m really waving to my girl who is somewhere behind the glass of one of those big windows.

It slows to a snail-paced roll and then stops in the middle of the station. The front end of the engine is lined up without any issue down at the edge of the unloading area. People begin to get off the train and make their way down the steps.

As each person steps onto the long, gray concrete strip we call the platform, my eyes scan each face and head of hair for my gal. Not yet. Not yet. Nope. She’s not there. Where is she? Did I come at the right time? Did I come to the right station? Did I make my way here on the right day? Or, did she miss the connection? Did she get on the right train? I don’t know, but I want an answer to all of these questions.

Wait. There. In the middle. There’s a head of hair that’s a little grayer than I remember. Below it? Eyes…eyes that still glow like the sun in the day and the moon in the night. The nose…yep, same nose I remember. And the smile? Yes, definitely the same smile that was there years ago, last year, last month, and today.

Am I being forgetful, somehow? No, it’s just time. It creeps up on all of us and then stands upright, right next to each of us like it was there all along. Ah, it was there all along. And so was my gal, who has come on the train. Home. Isn’t the sunlight glorious?

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This story was adapted from one of Marty’s upcoming books. For currently published, go to www.Amazon.com/author/reep

 

Positively Impacting Community

Posted on by martyjreep in Creative Writing, Motivational, Thoughts

Hopefully, part of your agreement with life involves improving parts of your community that need help. One of the best ways to positively impact your community is by showing people (of all ages) how to get involved in it.

By helping them understand how a particular community works, who the key players are, and what the current processes are, they’ll be able to see which parts are effective and which parts aren’t. Understanding those things will help them to see how they can help continue moving the good parts forward and fix the bad ones.

Lead by example, and encourage others to get out into the highways and byways of the community and become an excited part of it. Whether it’s through traditional ways or through creative ways, positively impacting your community is always a good thing.

“Fresh eyes” will see things differently than eyes that have looked at the same situation for a long time. Infusing your community with “new blood” will also invigorate other people to stay involved and improve at multiple levels. It’s true that the people who are involved in the community in one way or another are people who really care. If they didn’t care, they wouldn’t be involved.

A way to help others care is to help them see a need. At first, you may have to point out some needs to them (but probably not, since many needs are obvious). In time, they’ll see other needs on their own.

Once they see a need and have a desire to do something about it, help them design a plan of action. Action of some sort is necessary to convert their good intentions into positive changes. Their plan of action needs to include both short-range and long-range goals. Then, help them get to work.

Rolling up your sleeves alongside them will help them see that your own desire to positively impact the community is as real as theirs is. Together, your combined efforts will be amazing!

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[…adapted from Marty’s book An Agreement with Life]

And check out www.amazon.com/author/reep for more of my books.
Enjoy! – Marty

Worlds of Work and Letting Go

Posted on by martyjreep in Creative Writing, Motivational, Thoughts

A lot of people go into their little worlds of work and don’t come out again for 40 years. They think what they do is so important that they rarely stop to look at what they’re doing: to see if it really matters or fits well into the rest of the world somehow.

In some cases, their families grow up around them without them noticing until it’s too late: children seemingly change from toddlers to teenagers overnight, and spouses get tired of waiting for time together.

Don’t let yourself become that person who never leaves the office. Your family is more important. They really are – and there IS a way to live a balanced life. Meaning, you CAN provide for your family AND be with them in person 3-dimensionally to laugh, love, cry, hold, and smile.

Your family would rather have you than a picture of you.

Likewise, someone once told me, “Letting go is a good thing. It really creates freedom, and it lets trust grow.” Freedom and trust? Maybe trust is hard for you at times, because people have squashed it. You may have even said, “Forget it.”

If so, talking about it and writing it out can help. It creates a sense of permanence because it’s written down somewhere. It’s refreshing to get the old stuff out.

In time, you’ll be able to trust more, and things will “click”. They will be easier to deal with.

When you feel overwhelmed by people and things, let go, if it helps you feel better. Remember, life’s bark is bigger than its bite, most of the time.

Pray each day for the things that make you excited about life – the ones that make you feel tingly all over, good points in life, and feelings that you cherish. If you focus on them, then as you deal with people and situations, those positives will be there to guide you.

As wise men and women have said throughout the years, “Breathe out doubt; breathe in trust.”

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[…adapted from Marty’s book An Agreement with Life]

And check out www.amazon.com/author/reep for more of my books.
Enjoy! – Marty

The Mind Ponders What The Soul Sees

Posted on by martyjreep in Creative Writing, Thoughts

There are times that the mind ponders what the soul sees.  It is usually in the moments of solitude that one can hear the other, thus prompting the reflection that occurs.  Feebly attempting to interfere with the flow that comes from without, other parts of our psyche try to interject themselves between the two.  Instead of succeeding, they simply appear as lost bits of life, cast away from the whole and into the darkness.  Most of what we think we don’t see during the day can easily be captured by our senses and mind,  guaranteeing that nothing will be missed.

Next Book of Poems Being Published

Posted on by martyjreep in Creative Writing, Poetry, Thoughts

My next book of poems is being published!  Will be released in the next few weeks!  “Geese Will Fly” is an eclectic collection that is heartwarming, intriguing, mind-blowing, inviting, and encouraging!

ISBN-13: 978-1503249240
ISBN-10: 1503249247

More to come shortly!

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Books by Marty
www.amazon.com/author/reep

Getting Rid of a Box

Posted on by martyjreep in Creative Writing, Motivational, Thoughts

One of my favorite parts of “Finding Forrester” is where Forrester is walking around the room with scotch in his hand, telling his protégé, “You write the first draft from your heart.  The second draft, you write from your head…PUNCH the keys, for God’s sake! …You’re the man, now.”  He was trying to get his young friend to write from his guts and to write like he meant it.

It’s sort of like when the cartoonist Charles Schulz was starting out.  He had a dream of drawing for the world – to entertain – to amuse – to bring smiles to people’s lives.

Do you have dreams like that?  Do you want to bring smiles to people’s lives?  To ease their pain and sufferings?

Take those ideas out of your box of unfulfilled dreams, and breathe life back into them.  Don’t let that box be an evil box or even an impatient box.  Don’t be ashamed when you look inside of it.  Instead, do something positive about it – big or small, start today.

Emptying that box is powerful, because it does a couple of things.  First, it tells you that you are important in your world.  Some people put others in front of themselves so often that their own dreams and goals get pushed aside and forgotten.  By starting to work toward your dreams again, you will rebuild your self-assurance that is vital in living each day.

Second, it helps you to focus your energy in a positive direction.  Everyone has energy.  Many people have lots of it.  Using that energy daily to achieve your goals is extremely powerful.  Your mind will feel invigorated, and your body will feel the excitement of working toward a finish line.

Your box of unfinished projects or unfulfilled dreams can actually be used as a good thing.  You can use it to catapult yourself into the next realm of abundant living.  When you are making progress, you are getting where you want to go.  And when you are getting where you want to go, your mind will relax – allowing everything to fall into place.

That box may seem like a hindrance, a nag, a bother, something negative – but it can be used for good in your life.  “Think outside the box” in this scenario, and you’ll be amazed at how well all of the pieces will fit together.

Bit by bit, your daily energy and efforts will begin to pay off.  Eventually, you will have taken out all of your unfulfilled dreams and progressed toward fulfilling them.  Then, you’ll be able to get rid of that box.

Enjoy your new-found freedom!

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[…adapted from Marty’s book An Agreement with Life]

Let the Mind Flow

Posted on by martyjreep in Creative Writing, Motivational, Thoughts

The angst of holding back and not knowing whether or not you’ve done enough. To write. To produce content. To let the mind flow in ways that people would never think that it would go. To imagine where you want to be and to get there.

These are the thoughts that drive people forward, the ideas that propel them into the future with passion, belief and purpose. To drive into the wind and know that you may be knocked down if you lose your focus – or that the wind will change directions and blow the way you’re going to help propel you in your journey.

Don’t have angst anymore. Instead, believe that you will succeed. Work toward your goal, and never quit. Others may quit, but you won’t. You’ll hold fast to your dream and will come through the other side of the storm with your heart and mind intact!

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Books by Marty
www.amazon.com/author/reep

Finding Peace with the Words

Posted on by martyjreep in Creative Writing, Motivational, Thoughts

There’s an endless flow of words running through my head. I write them down, but more come to fill the well that I think gets emptied. The words started coming when I was little. Since then, they’ve always been there day after day.

At times they bother me, because they won’t leave me alone until I write them down. But once I write them down, they’re out of me – so they leave me alone, and I’m at peace for a while. But, more words come. Again, I write them down and am at peace. I type and write until tired – pause to see if any more are there and then smile – because of the silence that has finally returned.

I’m grateful for the words that flow. It’s all just a bit much at times. Writing provides an outlet for the ideas that flash through my mind…a way to emit the essence of the thoughts that flow. I write down the words and share them with the world. It will be up to other people to decide what they want to do with them.

In the movie, Finding Forrester, the main character (an author) wrote the words that came to his mind every day. They flooded his brain, his heart, and his body, until they filled his entire being. In the movie, his prize-winning book was an overflowing of those thoughts – in an effort to appease the words that besieged him day in and day out.

His words continued to flow to the point that he locked himself in an apartment – away from humanity and typed day and night. The banging of the keys would cease long enough for him to read, watch a little TV, or go out on occasion. I wonder if he ever thought, “I walk the streets at nighttime to see what people have done, what they leave behind, WHAT they are. I need to walk in daytime if I want to know WHO they are.”

Likewise, are there streets that you walk in aimless wonder?

Forrester also locked himself away because he couldn’t deal with the way people treated each other. He thought he could protect himself if he could hide from the rest of the world, but that didn’t hold true. Even with years “away” from the outside world, he was still captured by the persona of a young man who was struggling to become a writer – to share his own ever-persistent thoughts about the world around him.

Why is it that words and thoughts plague some of us and leave others alone? Or is it that ALL of us are bothered by them, but some just choose to ignore them completely? Is that what happens?

Does it happen to you? Let me know.

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[…adapted from Marty’s book An Agreement with Life]

 

Lightning

Posted on by martyjreep in Creative Writing, Motivational, Poetry

It strikes the land and slices wind
It courses through the air
As thunder rolls across the sky
To meet us standing there

There is a time for all to die
To see the end is near
But living daily well and strong
We have no death to fear

Fear not upon a mighty blow
The bough has broken nigh
And in the sky above us all
There is a heaven high

High on the treetops there be gold
And silver worth of joy
To see them swaying in the breeze
A smile my lips employ

Employ the lift of joy-filled songs
To recreate the light
As thunderous lightning fills the sky
Well in the dark of night

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Books by Marty
www.amazon.com/author/reep