Have you ever planted a tree and realized it will probably outlive you?
That thought occurred to me a couple days ago as I helped to plant a few young oak trees in Balboa Park.
Yesterday, as I sat gazing out at San Diego Bay, I recalled how the larger oak trees in the grove had seemed so very . . . old. How they were bent and cast dark, spidery shadows. And a bittersweet story came to me.
It’s titled Dale’s Tree. There aren’t many words. I published it here.
Would you like to read a short Christmas story?
It’s based loosely on a real experience. The story wrote itself today, while I was sitting out in the San Diego sunshine.
The title is A Christmas Secret.
Christmas is about generosity, compassion and good cheer. And that’s what this story is about, too.
To read it, click here!
We all have deep-seated desires that can never be fulfilled. It’s an essential part of being human.
There are horizons that cannot be reached, dreams that cannot be realized. But we keep moving forward through life, in that place where we find ourselves, and we never stop hoping.
I’ve published a short story concerning this. It’s titled A Distant Place.
Writing the story was painful. Those who are thoughtful might enjoy reading it.
You can read this short work of fiction by clicking here.
The Gingerbread Man emerged from a hot oven and arrived in Chula Vista today, thinking he could easily outrun families and kids attending Arts in the Park. But, alas, the famous little cookie met his fate.
The story of The Gingerbread Man was acted out, to the delight of the audience, in a very small wooden theater.
It was a fun demonstration of Kamishibai, a form of outdoor story telling that was popular in Japan during the first half of the 20th century.
The Kamishibai version of The Gingerbread Man was presented by Write Out Loud, who brought their live reading performances to the annual Arts in the Park event, held at Memorial Park in Chula Vista.
Run, run as fast as you can! You can’t catch me. I’m the Gingerbread Man!
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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
Back in Middle School, a bunch of classmates and I spent a summer weekend camping on Catalina Island. At the Parsons Landing primitive campground to be exact.
We hiked all over the north part of Catalina and saw bison, cliff dived into the ocean, sat around a campfire, and even went on an afternoon snipe hunt. (We saw bison? That’s correct! A small herd of bison was transported to this Southern California island by Hollywood for the filming of The Thundering Herd, a 1925 silent movie.)
The snipe hunt fascinated me. We headed up one of the trails above the campground searching right and left and occasionally beating a bush with a stick. Everyone knew from the start that the snipes weren’t real, but we all had fun “hunting” them anyway. At least for a little while. I think what made the snipe hunt fun was the shared joke, and the fact that we were heading up a trail that was new to us.
An idea for a short story came to me some time ago, based loosely on that snipe hunt experience. Of course, I changed many elements for my fictional story. It was necessary that I make the setting of the story a dark night.
You’ll see why when you read my new story, The Snipe Hunt, by clicking here!
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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
To read a few thought-provoking stories I’ve written, click Short Stories by Richard.
Do you like ghost stories?
Do you like riding trains?
Answer yes to either question, and you might enjoy a new short story that I published this morning. It’s titled Backward Man.
Is it possible to see the future by looking backward? That seems like a reasonable assertion, right?
If a little strangeness and horror are your cup of tea, you can read the story by clicking here!
Do you daydream?
I suppose we all do.
What do you dream about?
I dreamed up a short story.
It’s titled The Weed.
It’s a fairy tale, and it isn’t.
It’s about life, growth, and forgetting.
The abrupt climax is sad, and perhaps not unexpected.
If you have an active imagination and a philosophical view of life, you might enjoy reading it here.
Have a great Sunday!
Richard
I just finished writing another short story. It’s titled The Highest Seat.
This very small work of fiction concerns stars and how one can almost touch them.
The unusual concept behind the story arose from something a friend mentioned. We were talking during my Sunday visit to Balboa Park.
The story is based a little on truth, and much on imagination. If you’re a dreamer, you might like it.
Read it here!
Have you ever encountered a deep mystery whose solution turned out to be obvious?
A mystery like that unfolds in my new short story A Half Dozen Odd Things.
I love to walk around the city, take photographs, make discoveries . . . and occasionally write short fiction.
Do you love to read?
To solve the surprising mystery of A Half Dozen Odd Things, click here!
I hope you have a great Sunday!
Richard
Readers who are new to Cool San Diego Sights probably don’t know that, when I’m not walking around the city taking photographs, I love to write fiction.
Well, I’ve completed another very short story. This one is about a school teacher and a very peculiar lesson taught to her students.
The lesson isn’t merely strange–it might be one of the most important lessons any person, young or old, could learn.
To read it, click here!
Cool San Diego Sights! 