Creekbank Stories Curt Iles, Storyteller

                 Dead End   Mr. Frank Miller stormed into my office. Maybe stormed is too strong a word, but he was evidently highly upset. When a man over eighty storms into a room, and he is your mentor, you quickly want to ...

  Drive Your Stakes Deep We set up our tent on a bluff overlooking a pristine Maine lake. My hiking partner, Mac, and I were on a two-week hike on the Appalachian Trail (AT). We set up camp on an August evening with clear skies ...

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 ...

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 ...

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. ...

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 ...

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 ...

  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 ...

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 ...

 Honesty    “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. ...

    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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...