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  • Pic and a Word ChallengeThe Pic and a Word Challenge comes from Patrick Jennings’ site www.pixtowords.com Each week he provides a photograph of his along with a single word. The challenge? Use the pic and/or word as points of inspiration to create something — a photograph, a painting, prose, poetry, fiction, non-fiction, longread or just a few words. We are welcome to use these two elements (photograph and word) literally, thematically or metaphorically. If we create both images and words, all the better.
  • About & Contact Info
  • I know They say

    April 13, 2020

    Ben Kohns

    Life, Love, Poetry
    Coronavirus, Gratitude, Heart, Home
  • Identity Theft

    The Self is not a gift that one can give to another Rather, it is a thief’s relic we must take for ourselves in order to someday be ourselves.

    April 13, 2020

    Ben Kohns

    Coming Out – The Journey, Life, Poetry, Purpose, Uncategorized
    #napowrimo, #napowrimo2020, Identity Theft, Personality, Poetry, Self, Stealing, Theft
    Identity Theft
  • The Food of Love

    The music made my heart begin to beat I thought I knew music, but none like this

    April 13, 2020

    Ben Kohns

    Life, Love, Music, Poetry
    #napowrimo, #napowrimo2020, Love, Music, Poetry, triolet
    The Food of Love
  • bellis perennis

    Her only adornments are hope and innocence
An instinctive modesty, not a conscious constraint

    April 12, 2020

    Ben Kohns

    Poetry
    daisy, flower, hope, innocence, Poetry, simplicity
    bellis perennis
  • Sunrise

    What to do with this Life?

    April 12, 2020

    Ben Kohns

    Blessings, Charity, Christianity, Faith, Jesus, Kindness, Life, Love, Purpose
    Easter, Jesus, Life, Love, Neighbor
    Sunrise
  • Puppet Government

    With eyes of ping pong balls
puppets are blind to the distress of the defenseless

    April 11, 2020

    Ben Kohns

    Donald Trump, Politics
    government, kermit, lying, Pinocchio, Poetry, Politics, puppet
    Puppet Government
  • For Sylvia

    I am not ready for anything to happen

    April 9, 2020

    Ben Kohns

    Life, Mental Illness, Suicide, Uncategorized
    Life, recovery, Suicide, sylvia plath
    For Sylvia
  • The Christmas That Almost Wasn’t

    December 26, 2018. Yesterday could have been a very different Christmas. 21 days ago, I tried to take my own life. I’m writing about it for several reasons. First, it has become exhausting trying to keep track of who “knows” and “doesn’t know” what happened, thus creating multiple opportunities for awkward questions and conversations. For…

    December 26, 2018

    Ben Kohns

    Blog Entries, Christmas, Coming Out – The Journey, Death, Life, Mental Illness, Prose, Purpose, Suicide
    christmas, Mental Illness, Suicide
    The Christmas That Almost Wasn’t
  • Blessings and Breakage – Thoughts on Christmas and 2017

    Blessings and breakage live perilously close to one another.
 At times, blessings and breakage intertwine, to the point where you often can’t tell one from the other, if, in fact, they are not already one and the same.

    January 14, 2018

    Ben Kohns

    Blessings, Blog Entries, Charity, Christianity, Christmas, Kindness, Life, Love, Prose, Purpose, Uncategorized
    Christianity, christmas, contentedness, grateful, Jesus, Life, Love, Purpose, Spirituality, thankful
    Blessings and Breakage – Thoughts on Christmas and 2017
  • What am I DOING here?

    I have long had a personal distate for the interview question, “Where do you see yourself 5 years from now?” and my wife will also tell you I have a general aversion to goal-setting as a rule.  It’s not that I am afraid to set or commit to a goal, it’s just that so often where…

    September 17, 2017

    Ben Kohns

    Blessings, Blog Entries, Coming Out – The Journey, Faith, Prose, Purpose, Uncategorized
    birds, Faith, Purpose, Sunflower
    What am I DOING here?
  • When You Start, it’s Just a Pile of Wood.

    In order to become something useful or beautiful, that pile of wood has to go through a transformative process that only a true woodworker understands. And for this craftsman, that process becomes very personal, with the wood an extension or representation of myself, going through life, going from a pile of wood, to becoming something…

    August 5, 2017

    Ben Kohns

    Blessings, Blog Entries, Coming Out – The Journey, Life, Prose, Purpose, Uncategorized, Woodworking
    Humanity, Life, Patience, Planning, Tools, Woodworking
    When You Start, it’s Just a Pile of Wood.
  • Nobody Knows

    “Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen Nobody knows but Jesus Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen Glory Hallelujah Sometimes I’m up and sometimes I’m down Yes lord, you know sometimes I’m almost to the ground O yes, Lord, still Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen Nobody knows but Jesus Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen…

    June 27, 2017

    Ben Kohns

    Blog Entries, Coming Out – The Journey, Kindness, Life, Love, Mental Illness, Prose, Purpose, Uncategorized
    Nobody Knows
  • Pride. No Prejudice.

    It’s June 16 – just past halfway through Pride Month 2017.  If you are a Facebook friend of mine, you’ve noticed a steady stream of pictures and stories oriented around the struggles (and victories) of many in the LGBTQ community, many of whom I count as friends as well as brothers and sisters in Christ.…

    June 16, 2017

    Ben Kohns

    Blog Entries, Christianity, Coming Out – The Journey, Faith, Gay marriage, Homosexuality, Jesus, Kindness, Life, Love, Prose, Uncategorized
    Christianity, gay, Homosexuality, Humanity, Life, Pride, Religion
    Pride. No Prejudice.
  • Man Learns of His Heresy in Friends’ Bathroom

    I’m a bathroom reader.  My own bathroom is well-stocked with reading materials, and I’m always pleased when I use a host’s bathroom and find it replete with “stuff” to read.  I’m not fussy – give me a Reader’s Digest, a Guideposts – heck, I’d probably read a Watchtower if it were there.  I’ve even been…

    March 4, 2017

    Ben Kohns

    Blog Entries, Christianity, Faith, Life, Prose, Uncategorized
    Christianity, Faith, Humanity, Life, Reformed Theology, Religion, Spirituality, Theology, Wesleyan Theology
    Man Learns of His Heresy in Friends’ Bathroom
  • Count Your Blessings?

    To start the new year, one of things my church is doing is having each of us pull a star from a basket with a word on it and asking us to adopt it as our “word of the year” on which to meditate, study, reflect, etc. (the first one I pulled didn’t have a word…

    January 8, 2017

    Ben Kohns

    Blessings, Blog Entries, Christianity, Faith, Prose, Purpose, Uncategorized
    Abraham, Blessings, Christianity, Humanity, Kingdom, Life, Religion
    Count Your Blessings?
  • T+ 5 Days: Recalibration

    Those of you who know me or follow my blog know I was disappointed with Tuesday’s election.  I thought then (and still do) that the electorate had made a mistake.  My initial Facebook “statement” follows: So, anyone who has followed my posts knows I am disappointed this morning. I think America has made a wrong…

    November 13, 2016

    Ben Kohns

    Blog Entries, Christianity, Donald Trump, Faith, Hillary Clinton, Jesus, Life, Politics, Prose, Uncategorized
    Christianity, Racism, Trump
    T+ 5 Days: Recalibration
  • Decision 2016, What’s a Progressive to Do?

    I’ve got three half-written blog drafts in my box, because I keep thinking “I’m going to write something that’s not political.”  Alas, those entries will have to wait, because I need to get political, and I’ve promised myself and others I would keep it off of Facebook. I’ve long considered myself an independent.  Over the years,…

    August 7, 2016

    Ben Kohns

    Blog Entries, Christianity, Donald Trump, Faith, Hillary Clinton, Politics, Prose, Uncategorized
    Christianity, Politics
    Decision 2016, What’s a Progressive to Do?
  • The Curse of Comparison

    So. Several things are on my mind.  First (and second, and third), this summer has wrought HUGE changes to our cultural cloth:  Marriage equality, the resurgence of racism, The DONALD (for Pete’s sake), the insidious encroachment of ISIS, ISIL, the so-called Islamic State, etc., the tenuous balance of the Chinese economy (and, I dare say, government)…

    September 6, 2015

    Ben Kohns

    Blog Entries, Life, Prose, Purpose, Uncategorized
    blogging, comparison, Envy, Pride
    The Curse of Comparison
  • Feelings on Failure at Fowling

    I am not an athlete.  I’ve known it most of my life.  My high school physical education coach confirmed it, saying, “Son, with hands like that, you better play basketball or the piano, and I know you don’t play basketball”.  Now, one might argue that physical EDUCATION might have done something to improve my basketball ineptitude,…

    May 18, 2015

    Ben Kohns

    Blog Entries, Christianity, Coming Out – The Journey, Faith, Kindness, Life, Prose, Purpose, Uncategorized
    athletics, bowling, fear of failure, football, fowling, Hamtramck, Max Lucado, shame, social skills
    Feelings on Failure at Fowling
  • Isn’t it Ironic? Getting beneath the surface of the RFRA debate

    Some of you who know me have heard my rant on Alanis Morisette’s 1996 hit, “Ironic”, where she sings about a lot of things that are NOT ironic.  Rain on your wedding day? Not ironic – kind of a bummer.  A black fly in your chardonnay? Gross, but not ironic.  Good advice that you just…

    April 7, 2015

    Ben Kohns

    Blog Entries, Christianity, Faith, Gay marriage, Homosexuality, Jesus, Justice, Kindness, Life, Politics, Prose, Uncategorized
    Christianity, Faith, Gay marriage, homosexual, Jesus, Love, RFRA
    Isn’t it Ironic?  Getting beneath the surface of the RFRA debate
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