Fear or disgust are frequently triggered when one unexpectedly encounters a centipede, such as when it darts across a bathroom wall or emerges from a closet. However, there is a deeper message hidden beneath this automatic response. What if the centipede had symbolic significance and served as a prompt for introspection rather than merely being an unwanted visitor? The centipede is regarded as a symbol of change and advancement in many spiritual traditions. Its innumerable legs in perpetual motion stand for tenacity and progress. On a spiritual level, its existence could indicate a time of transition, the need to let…
Author: Kelly Whitewood
It was a rare instance of unadulterated emotion on live television. When Fox News host Will Cain informed his viewers that Charlie Kirk, a 31-year-old conservative activist, had died, he became silent and clearly shaken. On live television, “Great Dishonor” Shortly after responding to a student’s inquiry concerning mass shootings, Kirk was shot and killed on Wednesday afternoon while giving a speech at Utah Valley University. The heartbreaking news was later confirmed by President Donald Trump. While Cain was live on The Will Cain Show, Trump’s Truth Social post went viral. “It is my great dishonor to confirm that Charlie…
Late on Wednesday, Trump delivered the heartbreaking news in a somber post on Truth Social: Charlie Kirk, the Great and even Legendary, has passed away. Charlie was the best person to understand or possess the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America. Everyone, myself foremost, loved and admired him, and he is no longer with us. Melania and I send our condolences to his lovely wife, Erika, and their family. We adore you, Charlie! https://twitter.com/AutismCapital/status/1965849263059144832 The post verified what supporters had been worried about ever since Kirk was shot in the neck during a Q&A session with…
After her husband was shot dead at the age of 31, Erika Lane Frantzve, the wife of controversial US activist Charlie Kirk, posted something on social media that has caused readers to view it in a different way. On September 10, Frantzve was at the debate event at Utah Valley University with Kirk and their two young children when Kirk was shot dead by a lone gunshot from a nearby rooftop. Kirk, who co-founded Turning Point when he was just eighteen, was present at the debate with his group. The group sought to disseminate conservative ideas at liberal-leaning US universities,…
At 3 a.m. my phone was a lighthouse in the dark—eighteen missed calls from my daughter and a single text: Mom, help me! She lives alone. Seven months pregnant. I was in the car before the panic had words. Four blocks blurred by, every red light a personal insult. When she opened the door, hair mussed, robe tied haphazardly over her round belly, her face was a map of sleep. “Mom? What are you doing here?” “You called me.” I held up the screen with shaking hands. She blinked. “No, I didn’t. I was asleep.” Right there, while our breath…
My in-laws’ place has a way of swallowing noise. The minute you turn off the highway and the tires hit gravel, the world thins to wind in the oaks, a whicker from the stables, my girls’ laughter ricocheting across the field. Claire hopped out of the SUV still wearing the pink princess dress she’d insisted on at breakfast and leapt a mud puddle like she was clearing a castle moat. Emma didn’t even close her door—she sprinted toward the barn, already calling for Peanut, the pony she’s convinced is hers by birthright. Meredith walked after them with that easy farm…
Rain freckles the bus stop bench. Barbara, seventy-three and bone-tired, presses her palm to the cool metal and whispers a quick prayer. “Please… don’t let me leave this world without finding why I’m still here.” A horn snaps her back. She rises with a soft groan, fingers tight around her walking stick, and climbs aboard to a wall of damp coats and impatience. No empty seats. She plants her feet, knuckles white on the grab rail, and pastes on the smile older people wear when they don’t want to be a bother. Two minutes stretch long. No one moves. Then,…
The sudden death of Charlie Kirk has shaken the political world and left his followers in shock. At only 31 years old, the outspoken conservative activist and founder of Turning Point USA was gunned down while speaking at Utah Valley University, a place he had visited before and where he was no stranger to controversy. The killing, swift and deliberate, cut short a life defined by political combat, fiery debates, and a relentless commitment to his cause. Witnesses describe how the event, billed as part of his “American Comeback Tour,” had started like many others. The energy in the room…
By my fifteenth year driving the Cedar Falls school bus, I thought I’d seen it all—seat turf wars, secret candy stashes, kids drooling on the glass when the heater made the windows warm. You learn the rhythm: morning chatter, afternoon yawns, the chorus of “Move over!” and “He started it!” That fall, one kid didn’t fit the music. Emily Parker, ten years old, climbed the steps with her shoulders in a permanent flinch. “Good morning,” she’d whisper, and slide into the same spot every time—row four, left side, pressed to the window like she could disappear into it. No noise.…
Stephen had been gone about seven hours when Layla told me about the box. It was one of those slow, easy evenings—mac and cheese, cartoons humming, my six-year-old tucked into my side, warm and weightless. I asked if she wanted to play hide-and-seek before bed. She went still, fingers gathering the hem of her pajama top. “I don’t think I should,” she whispered, eyes darting toward the garage door. “Last time I played with Daddy, he got mad.” Stephen? Mad at her? The man who treated raised voices like broken glass? “Why?” I kept my voice light. “I hid in…