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Previous Challenge Entry (Level 3 - Advanced)
Topic: Hide and Seek (08/07/08)
The bulldozer and backhoe are at the ready.

Our wonderful and cruel game of hide and seek is over and our playground will soon be no more.

Oh the blessings of this wonderful game! Three days after the fire, prying open a melted freezer, we found the top of our youngest daughter’s wedding cake, still frozen.

Under the charred and melted remains, of what used to be a closet, came the discovery of our oldest daughter’s wedding dress, only in need of cleaning.

As in hide and seek, the wonder of the search is in the things we find. Every day for two weeks we come to the old homestead, looking, lifting, shifting, searching, finding. A box of baseball cards, a child’s dress, a high school yearbook, baby quilts, all buried in the ashes, all wonderful finds.

However, sometimes in hide and seek, “it” will lose; this is the cruelty of the game. Wedding rings soon to be under the massive weight of the dozer, a teddy bear from my youth now only ashes of the heap. Volumes upon volumes of words, great words of faith, Spurgeon, Moody, Whitefield, Edwards, Finney, gone, taken by the fury of the fire.

Hide and seek is only played in this rubble to find material things. The memories, the spirit of the family, these items were never lost, no need to seek the ashes for these things. The memories of holiday meals, laughter, arguments, kisses, hugs, prayers, and dreams, none of these lost, coming as naturally as before.

Soon there will be an open piece of ground where our house stood. We searched and found all we could but our home is always in our hearts, never needing to be searched for.
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This article has been read 996 times
Member Comments
Member
Date
Kristin Slavik
08/15/08
I liked the comparisons between the vast array of feelings one would feel after a fire. I think it could be expanded a little to make the reader feel more attached to the emotions that the person is feeling. Good job and keep writing!
Ellen Dodson
08/18/08
I like how you start with the precious objects that are found before following with the big one that was lost. You capture both sadness and hope, but I would like more detail. This seems like a great beginning of something bigger.
James Dixon
08/19/08
Loosing material stuff we find things of greater value. I think you had more to tell us and wanted to hear what you had to say.

You have an engaing style and could sustain a longer piece.
Sara Harricharan
08/20/08
Ah, your title says it all, this certainly fits the topic and you make it more than real to go through this experience of a home burned to the ground. I loved the lesson in here though. Well done! ^_^
Marlene Austin
08/20/08
Heart-wrenching personal narrative. Your title says it all... It had to take a lot of courage to write this from such a personal perspective. :)