Creekbank Stories Curt Iles, Storyteller

Choosing Your Rut     Choose your rut carefully: you’ll be in it for the next thirty miles. -Sign on Alaskan wilderness road It’s true. I learned in African bush driving that the rut you chose is very difficult to get out of. During the rainy season, dirt roads became paths of deep mud. Whatever rut I chose to follow …

Do you have “Salty Language?” (a 3-minute story) Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person. Colossians 4:6 ESV Salt has many uses: it seasons, preserves, melts ice, heals, and serves other purposes in our lives. Jesus, in his Sermon on the Mount, compares his followers to …

A Few Thoughts on Charisma   “Charisma is the ability to do the hard work of fitting in with those around you.” –Seth Godin   Charisma is a word that is often misunderstood. I recently ran across Seth Godin’s excellent definition of what it is. It is a person’s ability to fit in comfortably with those around him or her. …

Leaving this World Better . . . “L.T.W.B.T.U.F.I.” Leave this world better than you found it! It’s a good motto to live by. Whatever we touch. Wherever we go, we ought to leave it better. I’ve always loved camping and hiking. Part of the joy is in setting up camp along a bubbling mountainside creek or under the tall pines …

Less is More   “Too Many Pockets”   When we moved to Africa in 2013, the first thing I bought was a safari jacket/vest. This is an olive sleeveless vest loaded with multiple pockets. My safari jacket had sixteen pockets with both zippered and flap types. Most of the pockets were on the outside of the jacket, while others lined …

  Kindness makes a man attractive.    Proverbs 19:22  (The Living Bible) Kindness is a language anyone can understand.   The opposite of kindness is rudeness. There is no room for rudeness if your heart is full of kindness. A tenet of good Southern Hospitality is to speak and act with kindness. “If you can  be anything, be kind.” -Anonymous  

Kindness It’s something the blind can see and the deaf can hear.  It’s called kindness. It’s one of the best words in the English language. Kindness is a good word to contemplate today. “Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust, and hostility to evaporate.”       -Albert Schweitzer One of my favorite speakers (and …

 Honesty Catfish lies a lie will eventually catfish up with you    “No legacy is as rich as honesty.” – Quote beside my maternal grandfather, Sid Plott’s photograph in “The Gusher”, Byrd High (Shreveport) School, Class of 1926 Honesty, like lying, is a habit. Develop the fundamental habit of being a truth-teller in every situation. When is the truth a …

    The South Traffic Circle   “The reason that North and South Louisiana are so different and disconnected is that you can’t get from one to the other because of the Traffic Circle in Alexandria.” -Oft-repeated story prior to Interstate 49.   I’ve never heard anyone say anything good about the South Traffic Circle in Alexandria, Louisiana. It’s a …

The Rocker   “Do you think now that rocker is worth $1500?”  “No, it’s worth more like $15,000.”   It was a conversation I’ll always remember. Framed with a lesson I will not forget. An earlier conversation ended with a resounding “No.”   My special friend Karan Robinson shoved a photo into my hand. “Don’t you think that’d look good …

At the Creekbank, we’re interested in encouraging other writers and small businesses.   This is an article written by my friend, Tina Martin.   Tina can be reached at tina.martin@ideaspired.com>   Enjoy this article. I hope it reminds you that your “homestead” can produce products that help and encourage others. It may be a self-published book, a Christmas tree farm …

King Mockingbird   Author’s note: this story is from my first book, Stories from the Creekbank. It concerns a mockingbird and a place I love called Dry Creek Baptist Camp.   This week is Girls Camp at Dry Creek. The photo below shows four of my granddaughters, my two sisters, my daughter-in-law, a great-niece, and their friends at camp. I …

I’m working on a book of short stories. So far, I haven’t found a publisher. There’s no use keeping these stories to myself.  Enjoy! Pass them on. I’ll be posting a new story (at www.creekbank.net) every few days. I’ll use my Curt Iles Facebook page to announce new posts.   I’m always open to suggestions, feedback, and constructive criticism.   …

  Blessed is the man Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, Nor stands in the path of sinners, Nor sits in the seat of the scornful; 2 But his delight is in the law of the Lord, And in His law he [b]meditates day and night. 3 He shall be like a tree Planted by the [c]rivers of water, That brings forth its fruit in its season, …