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Articles by Charles Towne
What is a friend?
Charles Towne likes to be known first and foremost as a Christian... but he is also a nonagenarian (person in their 90s!!), a local Apopka author, former journalist, wildlife photographer, naturalist, and current caregiver and survivor. He shares that his life has been and continues to be a never-ending adventure filled with possibilities never imagined.
A near death experience - The Apopka Voice
Charles Towne likes to be known first and foremost as a Christian... but he is also a nonagenarian (person in their 90s!!), a local Apopka author, former journalist, wildlife photographer, naturalist, and current caregiver and survivor. He shares that his life has been and continues to be a never-ending adventure filled with possibilities never imagined.
What am I? | The Apopka Voice
Charles Towne likes to be known first and foremost as a Christian... but he is also a nonagenarian (person in their 90s!!), a local Apopka author, former journalist, wildlife photographer, naturalist, and current caregiver and survivor. He shares that his life has been and continues to be a never-ending adventure filled with possibilities never imagined.
Here there be monsters, part 2 - The Apopka Voice
Charles Towne likes to be known first and foremost as a Christian... but he is also a nonagenarian (person in their 90s!!), a local Apopka author, former journalist, wildlife photographer, naturalist, and current caregiver and survivor. He shares that his life has been and continues to be a never-ending adventure filled with possibilities never imagined.
Your next step could be your last - The Apopka Voice
I lie here among a collection of what some would call nothing more than a curiosity, just one oddity among many. What am I? I am quite plain, but even in my present form, I am deadly. What am I? I am a reminder of what may be hiding, lurking, awaiting the incautious move of the careless. What am I? I am bone white, a tad more than eight inches in length, needle-sharp on one end, and wickedly barbed on two of my edges. What am I?
Here, there be monsters... - The Apopka Voice
I have a collection of seashells in a basket beside my desk and on a shelf in my office. I like to sort through them at times and admire their diversity. Imagine if you can the incredible genius of the creator. There are thousands of varieties of seashells worldwide, and the simplest of them is a complex biological, living mechanism that man, in his wildest imaginings, can’t even begin to fathom, let alone create.
How vast is your potential for good?
Faith & Inspiration By Charles Towne Wow! That is a question that deserves an answer! I am not accustomed to hearing voices, and if I was I probably wouldn’t admit it for fear of being thought somewhat strange. (Yes, I know, I am a tad strange – but just a tad mind you! But there was a time when…) Well, it has been thirty or more years, and I was in a desperate place in my life. One night I had gone to bed, and as I laid there, I called out to God, “Dear Papa God, I need your help.
No Trespassing, and I mean it!
Photo by Sharon Carr @nickeynickers Faith & Inspiration By Charles Towne There are some, “No Trespassing signs” that are, if nothing more, hilarious! As a case in point here are a few that have especially tickled my funny bone over the years. To set the scene there are those common, even mundane signs that lack the power to really get our attention, such as; “Posted, keep out!” And then, “NO TRESPASSING!” Somehow lacks enough pop and sizzle to make me want to give it a second glance.
When I was young, I was a rascal!
Faith & Inspiration By Charles Towne “Oh, I don’t want anything to do with him, he is a rascal; definitely can’t be trusted! I mean, when he was a young man he even spent time in jail! No sir, you would do well to keep your distance from that one!” There are some people that have a tendency to put “labels” on animals: “sneaky” as a snake, “dirty” rat, “smelly” as a pig, “faithful” as a dog, “blind” as a bat, “stubborn” as a mule, “dumb” as an ox… you get my point.
This is the day!
Faith & Inspiration By Charles Towne Drake was his name, Drake Daniels. Drake was 57 and so excited that he was finally going back to school to study journalism. He was more than ready to see his dream of becoming a writer fulfilled. Drake had one book on the New York Times best seller list, and a publisher in one of the major presses was looking for more. By all appearances, Drake Daniels was living the dream! One might say that Drake’s beginning as a writer was most fortuitous.
Does marriage have end with a train wreck?
Faith & Inspiration By Charles Towne To simply say there was a lot of pain associated with my breakup and divorce honestly would be a cop-out, even a lie. To be completely honest I’d have to say my emotions were a combination of hysterical relief and the shame of failure. Let me paint a picture for you.
Confessions of an Honest Heart
Faith & Inspiration By Charles Towne “To be fully seen by somebody, then, and be loved anyhow–this is a human offering that can border on miraculous.” – Elizabeth Gilbert As Natalie (not her real name) related her story, it was obvious that she had given a lot of thought about what she was going to say. She started out by saying that her marriage is an incredible combination of joy and frustration.
Sometimes leaving the familiar is what it takes to reach our dreams
Faith & Inspiration By Charles Towne Are you comfortable staying in your comfort zone? Remember, the reward is always equal to the effort put forth. Take the following story as an example. As with all great legends, this one has never been proved nor disproved, though plenty of aquariums – from Tennessee to La Jolla – have staked their claim that it’s true. We’ll leave it for you to decide… but the deeper truth I see in it is one upon which we can all stand firm.
Go, and be prepared for the unexpected
Lower Wekiva River Preserve Faith & Inspiration By Charles Towne My first great love was a river. From wading and swimming in the Fox River of Illinois in my childhood I learned her surprises, her secrets, her dangers, and her charms. Yes, I was exposed to her unpredictable, intimate persona, and I learned that she, like a lover, was always changing, never the same. Here in Apopka, I have discovered another river – the Wekiva.
Good Grief! And this is man’s best friend?!
Photo by Maximiliano Pinilla Faith & Inspiration By Charles Towne It was William James, noted psychologist, philosopher and general wise guy, that said; “The deepest principle in human nature is the craving to be appreciated.” Genuine appreciation of others is likely the most valuable character trait a true leader can possess. Of course, having said that, we cannot give what we do not possess. To a large degree, this is all a personality issue.
If one is patient and waits long enough, something will usually happen
Faith & Inspiration By Charles Towne Time passes, some memories never do. The last two lines of Robert Service’s epic poem, ‘The Call of the Wild’ have inspired me for many years, and I would ask you to let it touch your soul now: “There’s a whisper on the night-wind, there’s a star agleam to guide us, And the wild is calling, calling… Let us go.” Interspersed throughout the poem a summons repeats itself, three times.
Our Friends, The Kitty Katz
Inspiration By Charles Towne I have two ‘katz’ residing with me. It should be understood that these are not the run-of-the-mill cats similar to those that live in the average home. No, these are supreme beings worthy of being treated with great love and devotion. When first introduced to my katz, otherwise known as Feliz Kitty Cattuz, I was made to understand that they needed me, but since then I have concluded that my early impression was wrong because my katz definitely do not need me.
Are we really independent?
Inspiration By Charles Towne Happy Independence Day Apopka! I hope you enjoy the weekend and fireworks. I also want you to take a new perspective on independence. Georgie, King of England, and his redcoats sort of messed up didn’t they? Think of it, if the powers that be had been a little less greedy when it came to taxing the colonies, just perhaps we would still be vassals to the crown! Yeah, just think of it. Just imagine… the entire history of our country would have been different.
Leave It Behind You
Faith & Inspiration By Charles Towne This article is a tad more convoluted and confusing than my average convoluted and confusing articles. You are probably asking, What does he mean by that?, so let me explain myself. I have an advanced degree in the fine art of messing-upism. Without going into it overly much, I must confess to messing up mightily in my somewhat blasé and dull life as a professional small boy at the advanced age of eighty-six plus years.
I didn't mean it!
Faith & Inspiration By Charles Towne We have all heard that classic children’s ditty, “Sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never hurt me!” Having heard it, do we believe it? Of course you don’t. Anyone with a scintilla of common sense knows that words spoken out of anger or malice can hurt as much as the stroke of a knife, or the blow of a fist. How many friendships have been dealt a death-blow by words spoken out of turn?
The Anatomy of Fear
Photo by Federico Di Dio Photography Faith & Inspiration By Charles Towne I wonder… could it possibly be… when it comes to the subject of fear, could it possibly be based more on a question of what might be rather than what actually is? Or, to put it another way, when we find ourselves immobilized by fear, might we find that the thing that is so terrifying is the idea rather than the reality? Stop and think about it: we fear the possibility of the unlikely.
Seven thought provoking questions we all need to ask ourselves
Faith & Inspiration By Charles Towne These questions below are life defining, life changing. If we search our hearts and answer the questions honestly, we are on the threshold of great change, and even greater God- pleasing victory. Question (1) Am I making a difference in my world and the people in it, today? Question (2) Am I living my life as an example for good, as God intended, and thus impacting others that they may desire a close walk with the Source of all that is good?
Surrender: The most difficult of prayers
Faith & Inspiration By Charles Towne Rick Warren, in his book, The Purpose Driven Life, writes: “Genuine surrender says, “Father, if this problem, pain, sickness, or circumstance is needed to fulfill your purpose and glory in my life or in another’s, please don’t take it away.” Wow! I personally have discovered that Pastor Warren’s prayer, simple as it may be, is the most difficult of all prayers. ‘Why difficult?’ you might ask.
The War Lance - The Apopka Voice
Photo by Stephen Pedersen Written while driving through the medicine mound area of Texas on Hwy. 287 Fiction | Inspiration | A Modern Day Allegory By Charles Towne I speed across a land of memories… of hopes… of dreams. In hours, I travel distances that would have taken days of hard riding to cover in a Conestoga wagon 150 years ago. I pull off to the side of the road, stop, climb out of my truck and stand there, gazing into the distance. All is still.
A baboon, chimpanzee, and that infernal rattling!
Photo by Francesco Ungaro Faith & Inspiration By Charles Towne About fifty years before yesterday while I was directing a zoo in the mid-west, I had a prime male chacma baboon in my possession. In the adjoining cage dwelt my friend, Junior, a male chimpanzee. Now, I want you to know that either of these dear creatures could rip your head off and pound sand down your neck. I mean, they were powerful to the extreme.
Rattle, rattle, rattle...! - The Apopka Voice
Photo by Francesco Ungaro Faith & Inspiration By Charles Towne About fifty years before yesterday while I was directing a zoo in the mid-west, I had a prime male chacma baboon in my possession. In the adjoining cage dwelt my friend, Junior, a male chimpanzee. Now, I want you to know that either of these dear creatures could rip your head off and pound sand down your neck. I mean, they were powerful to the extreme.
Maggie's conclusion: she is 'bad luck' for men
The Saga of Aunt Maggie, Part 3 By Charles Towne Well dear reader, the last we knew, Roy’s dogged persistence has paid off because Aunt Maggie has finally agreed to marry him. Poor Roy. Now please, don’t get me wrong; it’s not that Maggie is against marriage, no way! In fact, if you will remember, she has ventured down the somewhat thorny matrimonial pathway before, three times before to be exact, and each time she survived her sweetheart.
Your rejection slip is showing
There is one thing that is worse than being stung by a bald faced hornet, and that is being stung by five or six bald faced hornets at the same time. That sweet, exquisite experience is not something that you are apt to forget any time real soon, if ever! Usually bald faced hornets considerately build their paper nests high in the uppermost reaches of the trees, well out of the reach of small boys.
It doesn't take courage, bravery, or patience to...
Photo by Chandan Chaurasia …do something that you love to do! Faith & Inspiration By Charles Towne Disclaimer: I, contrary to popular belief, am not crazy. Really, I am not! I don’t really enjoy getting bit, chewed on, stung, clawed, ripped, torn, folded and otherwise mutilated. But then… why do I seem to always go back for more? Well, perhaps I am a little crazy. Just a little mind you… just a little.
And now for the rest of the story...
Faith & Inspiration By Charles Towne A few years ago I flew to Wisconsin for my father’s funeral. After a few days I returned to Orlando, and when my plane landed at Orlando International Airport I caught a cab from the airport to my home. The driver, we will call him Rick, was a heck of a nice guy and, as we had some time we started talking.
The Glass Frog, a marvel of creation
The translucent skin of this glass frog reveals eggs waiting to be hatched. Photo courtesy of Earth.com Faith & Inspiration By Charles Towne Language is fascinating, isn’t it? Take the word translucent for example, or hyaline; both are Latin in their origin, and they have roughly the same meaning. When considering the glass frog one will soon notice that this creature has translucent skin, and please don’t ask me why; they just do. Which is quite a fascinating adaptation, if I do say so myself.
'Faint heart never won fair lady', an unfortunate truth for Tom
You remember Tom, don’t you? Well now, Tom has fallen in love with Aunt Maggie. Yes, poor Tom. You might wonder how any man in his right mind could, or would, fall in love with Aunt Maggie. I mean, this is the same little old Aunt Maggie from last week that beat the mushy stuffings out of a grizzly bear with a cast iron frying pan, sending that bear skeedaddling down the trail in terror! Stranger things have happened I suppose, but I just can’t think of any right now.
Aunt Maggie and the Easter Bear
Maggie was her name. Margaret F. Moultrie to be precise. But folks that knew her called her Aunt Maggie. Now, I want you to understand that Maggie was not your average, run of the mill, sweet little old lady. Huh uh. She was in her later, irascible eighties, stood about five feet tall, weighed something less than 110 pounds, and lived by herself in the Alaska bush. That she was independent went without saying.
Life should be a little nuts!
Photo by Sebastian Staines Faith & Inspiration By Charles Towne Life – or that ambiguous stuff of which life is made (and you know what I am speaking of, for it is called living) – should be just a smidgeon extravagant.
If God had all the information...
Faith & Inspiration By Charles Towne Imagine there is this guy or gal that absolutely drives you up the wall. I mean, for whatever reason, you simply don’t like the person and avoid them whenever possible. Maybe it is one of your school mates, or someone that you work with, or heaven forbid they are a member of your church, or even a family member! Why you don’t like them isn’t all that important; or is it? They just bug the dickens out of you, tick you off.
41 snakes and a beetle
Faith & Inspiration By Charles Towne I was hunting diamondback rattlesnakes in South Florida for Bill Haast, owner of the Miami Serpentarium. Bill milked the diamondbacks for their venom and used the venom in research to find cures for various human diseases. The hunting had been very good. In a week I had captured 41 large diamondbacks. I was driving a Volkswagen bug and had removed the back seat so I would have plenty of room for the snakes.
Face the danger!
Photo by Danika Perkinson Faith & Inspiration By Charles Towne The bear was angry. A four-hundred-pound male, he charged me for the fourth time, finally ending up within ten feet of me. I knew that at this distance, if he decided to attack, he could be on me in less time than it takes to blink. He raged at me, popping his jaw, cussing me out in bear language; at least that is what I think he was doing.
What is your story?
Photo by Raimond Klavins on Unsplash Faith & Inspiration By Charles Towne It is highly unlikely that you will ever know what it is like to sky dive unless you strap on a parachute and step out of a perfectly good plane several thousand feet in the air.
Have you ever felt trapped?
Photo by Christophe Windus Faith & Inspiration By Charles Towne Traps come in many sizes, shapes and forms. And before we go any further, just what constitutes a trap? Well, in it’s crudest form, there are dead-fall traps. The dead-fall trap is made of a heavy weight, such as a log or a boulder, that is positioned over a game trail in such a way that when an unwary animal triggers the dead-fall, the aforementioned weight falls and kills the animal. Then there is the snare.
The Puzzle: A tribute to teachers everywhere
Photo by Sigmund on Unsplash Faith & Inspiration By Charles Towne She sat there engrossed in the puzzle. She enjoyed puzzles, had for years. There had been so many, many puzzles. There had been puzzles of ships on turbulent seas and ships in serene harbors. Puzzles of children, of animals, of children and animals, of gardens and forests, puzzles of all sorts, shapes, and sizes. One of her favorites was a large 1,000-piece puzzle made up entirely of tiny multicolored seashells.
What love can do
Faith & Inspiration By Charles Towne The owner of the little convenience store knew the boy was shoplifting but he didn’t say anything. He just watched and waited as knew that another opportunity would present itself. It always did. Two days later the kid was back, prowling the aisles. The store owner watched the boy from the register, seeing him clearly in the large security mirror that hung at the rear of the store.
An encounter of the 'snakey' kind
Rattlesnake photo by Meg Jerrard on Unsplash Faith & Inspiration By Charles Towne A faint, barely discernible suggestion of sound, a troubling dissonance, suggested itself upon my being, then, silence. A silence all the more foreboding because the author of that sound could very possibly make the next few minutes, or hours, most interesting indeed.
The Journey of 1000 Miles
Photo by Marc Zimmer on Unsplash Faith & Inspiration By Charles Towne Many years ago, and very far away, two slaves were given a challenge by their king. Now, you should know that this was not just your ordinary, run of the mill challenge. Oh no. Not one of those mediocre, “Go out and slay a fire breathing dragon and save a fair damsel” sort of challenges. No sir’ree Bob. They were summoned before the king and ordered to walk a thousand miles! “Walk a thousand miles!” You say.
The miracle that is the bear
Photo by Marc-Olivier Jodoin on Unsplash Faith & Inspiration By Charles Towne I closed my eyes for a few moments, must have dozed off. When I opened my eyes, a 200-pound female bear was standing in the creek about 15 feet from me. She just stood there gazing off into the swamp with her back towards me. It is a wonderful thing to be accepted by the bears, yes; accepted and at times ignored. She left as quietly as she came.
Our Great Love - The Apopka Voice
Photo by Hush Naidoo on Unsplash Opinion | Faith & Inspiration By Charles Towne I wish you could have known her when she was well. When we first met… even then she was showing signs of sickness… though all we were aware of was her loveliness, her great and intense beauty. Beauty? You wonder. I should say so! Such a lovely lady.
And the angels laughed... or maybe, it was just birds being birds
Photo by Dulcey Lima on Unsplash No matter what happens sometimes in the wild of the wilds, Papa God knows how to give good gifts…and memorable memories… often with a little twinkle in his eye Nature Nugget By Charles Towne After spending a lifetime on the lakes and rivers of this grand country of ours, and rubbing shoulders with all sort of varmints, critters, and denizens, I must say that I really like great blue herons.
No matter the year, good memories can always be found
Photo by Biljana Martinic on Unsplash Faith & Inspiration By Charles Towne I can remember waaayyyy back when we used “B.C.” for measuring time. For those not in the know, B.C. stands for Before Children. I can also remember when my new bride and I first set up housekeeping. At that time, we were still in our ‘mental diapers’ – without the good sense the good Lord gave a goofy gopher.
The Song of Snow
Photo by Alasdair Elmes on Unsplash Faith & Inspiration By Charles Towne Have you ever heard the song of snow? Oh, you didn’t know that snow could sing? Listen, as I tell my story. The people of the far north, known as the Eskimo, don’t have a word for grass. No, none at all. But… they have many words for snow. There is dry snow, and wet snow. There is fluffy snow, and crunchy snow. There is silent snow, and noisy snow. Oh so many names for snow.
Fire ants are such endearing little critters
Photo by Mikhail Vasilyev on Unsplash Opinion | Faith & Inspiration By Charles Towne It has been several years since I went camping in Florida’s Ocala Forest one dark night, and pitched my tent on top of a fire ant’s nest. Fire ants are such endearing little critters. I must say that it was with great motivation and enthusiasm that I fought my way out of my sleeping bag to do a wild dance, slapping at myself in the light of the campfire to get rid of the wee beasties.
Papa God's sweet Christmas gift to me
Faith & Inspiration By Charles Towne Thank you Papa God for giving Nanny to me, not for just one day, but for a lifetime. I thank you for my darling, my wife, my Nancy with the smiling face. O God, my merciful and Holy friend, Nanny is an absolute wonder, one of your miracles of grace and joy.
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