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Dear Friends,
This month’s stories focus on presents—both wanted and unexpected. To me, January is a time to think about wants, needs, and wishes. May you know what you want, get what you need, and find a way to make you wishes come true.
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 Among all the animals, Great Elk and Elk-Wife were the most fearsome. One day, as Elk and
Elk-Wife were walking in the forest, Hare overheard their conversation. “I have a pair of old antlers.” he told her. “I’d like to give them to someone but I don’t know who should have them.”  When I was a child, given my mother’s violence and my father’s lectures about the cost of
things, I learned not to ask for what I wanted. There was one big exception. From the time I was old enough to know what a typewriter was, I yearned to have one—a little portable I could keep on my desk, with a case to carry it with me when we went to the country for summer vacation.  As a 16-year-old junior counselor I’m allowed one day off every two weeks. I want to leave
camp but the only place I can think to go is my parents’ bungalow north of Peekskill. My mother offers to pick me up but I want to hike there. I don’t know the mileage—maybe ten miles from camp. I prefer not to go alone so I ask Ellen, also a junior counselor, if she wants to go with me. She enthusiastically agrees. We pack food from the kitchen, fill our canteens, and dress for hiking.  I hired a contractor to remove all the concrete around my house and garage. Not only was it ugly,
water ran down from the stone wall, leaving deep ruts in the earthen driveway. After the contractor terraced the area and covered it with pebbles, I had to decide what to do with the space. |
Monthly StoriesStories inspired by world tales to challenge and comfort. Archives
January 2026
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Nancy King is a widely published author and a professor emerita at the University of Delaware, where she has taught theater, drama, playwriting, creative writing, and multidisciplinary studies with an emphasis on world literature. She has published seven previous works of nonfiction and five novels. Her new memoir, Breaking the Silence, explores the power of stories in healing from trauma and abuse. Her career has emphasized the use of her own experience in being silenced to encourage students to find their voices and to express their thoughts, feelings, and experiences with authenticity, as a way to add meaning to their lives.
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