A Missing Piece

Dare to Share theme: I'd like you to link up a post that involves standing up for something you believe in. You can stand up for a cause, support your opinion, or just rant about something that makes you mad.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T...is missing. It has lost its place.
Once an expectation, now a welcomed difference you find among the young. So many of our young today walk with an expectancy that they should receive, and yet not give. Manners are rare.

So many speak with no regard to those around them...adults and even their peers. They demand. They speak out. They challenge authority. Discipline is never fair in their eyes, nor necessary. Fault belongs to everyone and everything else.

I see it in many places. School. Homes. Public outings. And yes...even at times church.


I question how we got here...and I blame society as a whole. We let down our guards. We opened doors, allowed things in. We pushed things out.

And now...we pay the price. We are raising our young to be selfish-go-getters and reward them for fighting for their independence, and not worried about the ones pushed over in the fight for that. We have allowed them to become these individuals, and they have started to raise the same children, and the patterns are increasing.

My rant tonight...we need to turn the wheel. We need to "recalculate". We need to teach our youth respect. We need to show them they can't be out for me, me, me. We need to show them how to look after those around us. We need to teach them compassion. We need to protect them from the sins of this perverse dark world, and we need to put light back in their lives. We need to teach them faith, love, and the need for someone to lean on.

We have made mistakes pushing God out of society...out of our children's lives. We are paying a price.

Love you forever,

We all remember our first love – and our first heartbreak.
Your assignment this week was to write a piece where you explore the first broken heart for your character




Every note Caden sent ended with "Love you forever," and as Tonya placed each one in the box, she dreamed of their future. The future she dreamed of,  painted perfect.

Fairy tale wedding.
White picket fences.
One adorable boy with chocolate eyes.
One petite, curly haired girl.
Smiles and giggles, kisses and hugs.



Tanya waited each day for his calls. Opened her locker with expectations of love letters. And they came, every day and the hours and minutes stole her breath, and he stole her heart. She had found her first love...her forever love.

Her life was filled with him. She spoke little to her friends, her parents were just visions she drifted by as she entered the door and picked up the phone to call him. Her life evolved around one...Caden.

Until a shift.
A jolt.

Caden wasn't there waiting at her bus. He called later each day and hurried off the phone. Days went by and no notes were found. Tanya's breath eased when she found one in her notebook....but it was signed without loves or forevers.

She sat waiting on her porch. He had called and planned an unexpected date. She should be excited and hopeful...but his voice had left her scared. A change had occurred. Her forevers were drifting from her reach.

The phone rang from inside the house. Sheran and picked it up and heard a voice she remembered from weeks ago. She had called her "friend". But she had left her, ignored her. And now....she is telling her things. Things about him. It had to be from anger...jealousy. He wouldn't do these things.

And then the horn from outside. A quick comment to her "friend" about rumors and gossip that couldn't be true. She revealed none of the questions that had been plaguing her own mind. She grasped her last bit of hope and headed to his car.

As she slid in, she turned to his eyes.

And there stood that truth.

The love, the adoration...gone.
Staring back at her was an emptiness, a void.

"You are taking me out to break up with me...aren't you?"

And in his eyes, relief. Almost a smile graced his lips..."Um...yeah."

The cold climbed into her stomach. Her heart which had melted...frozen solid. Her breath stuck between her lungs and her lips. The fullness, emptied and lay at her feet. A tear fell from her eye...and a whisper, "Why?"

A name spit from his lips....the rumor and gossip true.

Tanya slipped out from the seat and forced her feet to move into her home and through the door to her room. An avalanche of emotion came and couldn't be stopped. The pain needed to be cushioned, and she grabbed for her box. She read the words, one after the other. Each word another pin prick into the balloon...releasing her hope, dreams.

And when she finally closed tired eyes and buried her tear stain face she whispered to herself there would never be another like him.