I have a passion, a goal, a dream. As far as dreams go, this one is fairly recent in grabbing me, but I am thankful everyday that it did. A little bit of background: Upon coming to Rice U, I had a will to share with others an experience that I had when I moved to a small town. The experience had to do with looking at my own town with amazement, like a traveler does. I never came up with a successful way to share this experience. Then, sychronistically, I met Hank Hauffe, a swing teacher. He taught me to dance and we became friends. Then one day he shared with me a dream that he had. It was to create a place in Houston. And that day my life changed. The place was dedicated to that same type of experience that I had in my small town. The Place: Marion's Ledge Commons and Cafe ~ A way-station of unusual richness and engagment - For all with a spirit of a traveler. http://www.marionsledge.org Check out our website. I would love to hear what you think of our vision.

As stars move by and night passes on.
A single thought passes through my mind’s eye.
Like a flame never ending,
Burning in a forest where no one can see
A love which once shown like a beacon.
Now just a cracking flame.
Will the fire grow to burn down the forest in a single night?
Or will it continue to lessen till it is nothing but an ember?
Either way, its ashes still reside in my heart

~ Hailey Hinson

This poem was written 4 years ago when I was back in High school.  

I wrote this story this afternoon. I was in a weird mood and just felt like I needed to write something. I am not sure where this particular story came from. I just started with Once Upon a Time... the story just evolved from there. I was not sure what was going to come next or even how it was going to end until it did. I hope you enjoy. 

    My Story

    Once upon a time there lived a pretty blue monster in a hillside in northern Italy. Italy was a pretty place and suits the monster to a tee, but one day the monster discovered that it had a problem. It came out of it’s cave in the morning to discover that all of the flowers were upside down. the Monster could not under stand or even believe what it was seeing. How could the flowers be facing down with their roots sticking straight up in the air. This sight confused the poor monster that it turned back around and headed back into its own cave bedroom. Sitting there, the monster began to think about the sky. Why was the sky blue? Why do the flowers like to grow up towards the sky? (well, until today) What is so repulsive about the ground that made most flowers just stretch and stretch away from it. The monster sat in bed in quandary for the longest of time. It then realized that what ever was so great about the sky would never be understood from a cave. So the monster ventured back outside to face the flowers.

    The monster looked up into the sky and was surprised to see that the birds were soaring through the sky upside down, just like the flowers. “Who made the sky down and the land up? And then forgot to tell me!” The monster roared in anger at this preposterous notion. “Why and I not connected to the way of the world?!!!!????” It then kicked some of the upside down flowers. The flowers reaction amazed the monster. They flipped right side up and replanted themselves in the ground. Experimentally, the monster began to tip more flowers. Like the first, they quickly righted themselves. All they needed was a little nudge. This made the monster exuberant. It knew that it had the power to set the flowers right again. So it set to knocking over all of the flowers.

    An hour later, the monster looked up from its flower-tipping that it had been so absorbed in and was amazed to see that it was only a small way into the field. To tip over all of the flowers would take hours, a day even. The monster backed away from the flowers knowing that it didn’t have the patience to keep at the task. It was ready to give up when a little up side down bird came and flew right by the monster causing it to look up. The monster’s attention was drawn to a cloud in the sky that seemed to be sparkling brighter than all of the rest of them. It kept its eyes locked on this mesmerizing cloud, eyebrows pushed in in contemplation.

    Soon, the monster felt an unknown, but wondrous feeling come over it. The cloud formed its self into the shape of one of the flowers, but oriented right side up. The cloud began to move closer and closer to the monster until it was within arms reach. the monster, not sure of what it was doing, reached out and touched the cloud. The flower cloud began to rotate. At this point, a panicked feeling came over the monster. Here before it was a perfect rendition of a flower and by touching it, the picture had been altered, making it less then what it had been. The flower cloud rotated until it was completely upside down.

    Then a thought occurred to the monster. It looked back at the upside down flower cloud and then back at the right-side up flowers that he himself had corrected surrounded by the millions of still upside down flowers. He ran back to the entrance to his cave and used the wall to turn himself upside down. As he looked around, he realized that all along, he was the one that had been upside down. Not all those flowers. A peaceful feeling came over him and he looked at the now once again perfect rendition of a flower in a cloud. 

    The monster woke with a start and smiled as he thought over the dream that he had just had. He jumped up off bed and went out to change the world. And he succeeded.