River of Thoughts

Christine Royse Niles — Changing the world one word at a time

Week Of Sloth

From your comments last week, it sounds like this has been a pretty hard season for a lot of people. Everyone needs a nap.   For me, these last few months have been filled with stress and exhaustion at every turn. While some of it was very worthwhile and rewarding, much of my energy was spent chasing after the wind. So, after eighteen months of hustling toward my dreams of writing and making a difference in the world, and after nearly as long a time of intentional prayer about where God wanted me to serve, I’m taking a pretty big […]

The City

Welcome to Fiction Friday.  Every Friday I share with y’all a glimpse into the mind of Zach the Zombie and some of his friends.  Today, I wanted to share two early (and out of sequence) pieces that show a little bit more about The City. You know the drill–this is not really edited at all, so grace and forgiveness, please…no red pens!  🙂 I see the City in the distance, shimmering waves of heat rise between here and there, making it seem unreal. As we stumble closer, I begin to see it more clearly.  Shelter after shelter. Shelters on top of […]

The secret no one tells you…

When you start chasing a dream, it’s new, it’s fresh. You feel inspired. You decide on a focus. You set a schedule. Word counts, posting goals. You tweet. You write. You watch as your traffic grows and you celebrate your tenth subscriber. There are hard times, too. There are days when you really just want to stay in bed, but you get up and you slog it out. There are days when the words don’t come easy. You get in the ring, lace up your gloves, and come out battered and bloody with maybe only a couple hundred words to […]

Inside

Welcome to Fiction Friday.  Each Friday, I’m sharing with y’all a glimpse into the mind of Zach the Zombie and some of his friends. Here’s Zach, just as he’s gotten into the City. You know the drill–this is very minimally edited.  I continue to appreciate grace and forgiveness for errors!  🙂   The sun feels brighter here. The leaves of the trees smell crisp and green. What does green smell like anyway? Not sure, but these leaves smell green. Seriously. Anyway…breaking a habit is hard, but I’m determined. As I creep through the city, I learn to be quiet. I practice. […]

Dog Vomit, Revisited

As a dog returns to its vomit….. ….so a fool repeats his folly. I saw this verse on Twitter recently (Prov 26:11 for those who are playing along at home). At first, I laughed. Because, well, vomit is kinda funny. Unless it’s on your frisee rug. Or under the dinner table. Both places where we’ve experienced the special awesomeness of dog vomit in the last month, by the way. Then comes the image of the dog actually coming back to it. We’ve all seen that. The idea that a dog’s mouth is the cleanest place? Not buying that. I’ve seen […]