Chronicle at strive4impact.com

December 1994
Jonathan is 15

Balances between innocence and reality

December 1994
An unfinished song
Jonathan is 15

Don't just throw the love away
Bring it back and let it stay
Don't let the colors fade to gray
Tonight

December 24, 1994
Jonathan is 15

It's another Christmas Eve. Almost a Christmas.

Thank-you for sending Jesus to the earth so that we all might live eternally. Thank-you for all I have even though I often forget how fortunate I am.

Happy B-day Jesus!

Jonathan Kraft

December 1994
Jonathan is 15

Would you still talk to me if I couldn't hear you?

Would you still hold my hand if you knew I couldn't feel you?

Would you still come to see me and be with me if I were blind?

December 1994
Jonathan is 15

Coyote, Coyote, howling in the night
Why do you cry? Is it your fright?

Or is it that you can see
the large decline in reality?

December 1994
Jonathan is 15

Contradiction

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Poems and Letters
Pictures and fear
While future generations wonder
what happened here

December 1994
Jonathan is 15

As an eagle
Crying out with an anthem
Soaring
Gliding
Never stopping
On wings of endless flight
Through a turning night
Turning dark
Soaring endlessly through the dark
Trying to find even a point of light to cling to
Sure that the light is there
and can even see how to find it
but the strangeness of the dark is addictive and overpowering
pulling him to fly endlessly into the dark
Knowing is the dark that if it can keep him away from the light then it can keep the eagle lying in the dark forever
And to the dark the eagle will unknowingly bring others
Others who believe that since he knows how to find the light, he will lead them to it.
Only to find, however, that when he tells them where to find the light, they don't want to hear it.
He wishes he could remain in the dark for life and go into the light for eternity
But he knows he must choose to fly through the light

December 1994
Jonathan is 15

God has supreme power, but in the end it comes down to us to be instruments of God on earth.

---

We can't make up for mistakes made in the past,
Nor can we prevent those that will be made in the future.
We must live in the now.

---

When something flies into a light, it's reflection is 10 times as big.

January 1995
Jonathan is 15

For the first fourteen years of my life, I fought for an understanding of why the world was the way it was, not ever perceiving in those fourteen years how the world was.

Around the time I turned 15, I began to perceive how the world was. When this happened, the desire to know why it was that way vanished.

---

Respect and fear
A difference not seen by all at one time or another

January 1995
Jonathan is 15

Me
Am I as unique as I had once thought
or am I just another
trying to find my way
through life

January 1995
Jonathan is 15

A person who does math well knows formulas and rules.
However, a mathematician finds the rules without ever needing to know formulas.

A musician knows notes as well as perhaps scales, intonation, and harmonics.
However, a musical master could compose great music without ever knowing how to read a note.

An athlete knows his limits and the limits of the game that he plays.
However, a legend pushes those limits farther than they will go.

February 1995
Jonathan is 15

The Man in the Moon
a figment of the mind
looks down on us
and sees us in our lives

He sees the way we fear,
He sees the way we harm,
He sees the way we hate

February 1995
An unfinished song about a girl
Jonathan is 15

Do you see what you're doin' to me EEEDEDCCC
I see you in everyone I see EEEEDEDCCC

March 1995
Jonathan is 15

EXCUSES

A gun isn't made to kill. It's made to fire a projectile through a round cylinder.
-Intratec Gun Manufacturer

A four month old fetus is not living.
- Planned Parenthood

March 28, 1995
(After watching a movie I enjoyed called Tall Tale)
Jonathan is 15

TALL TALE

Code of the West
- Protect the land
- Defend the defenseless
- Never spit in front of women or children

There's nothing to be ashamed of if you do your best.

April 11, 1995
Jonathan is 15

Dear God,

Please be with Kristina tonight. Feed the wisdom that is inside of her with power from the holy spirit. Help her to keep her spirits high even though she is in the middle of a mess. Please also be with the people around her.

April 13, 1995
Jonathan is 15

Cactuses are a lot like the majority of people. They adapt to the things around them the best that they can and do their best to be beautiful.

Dear God,
I want to ask you to be with Kristina. Help her in what she's doing and help her to get along OK at her school. Help the people around her to try and understand what's going on with her and what's happening to her life because of them. Be with Pat. Help him to keep his spirits high. It is the only way he can beat his cancer.

Mid-April 1995
Jonathan is 15

Everyday I make a choice
whether or not to use my voice
The choice I make might show others me
But will they know me by what they see?

If I choose to hide me inside,
Maybe for fear, but not lack of pride
Then I lose out because what they see
is not really the person who is me.

And when I lose out so do they
because, perhaps, I could have helped them pray.
So every day I make a choice
that it's best to use my voice.

April 22, 1995
Jonathan is 15

I've learned that as much wisdom can be gained from the very young as can be gained from the old.

April 22, 1995
Jonathan is 15

Don't forget Jesus, who appeared in light and was revealed
this is said to those who see him, but still don't feel
Him inside their hearts

4/22/95
I saw Jesus appear on the wall at Ave Maria (Catholic Church).
I feel Jesus in my heart, and will try to remember to see him in others.

April 1995
Jonathan is 15

To My Friend Melissa

When Looking At
A Seed, Only A
Small Amount Of The Potential Beauty
Is Seen. But On The
Inside Of That Seed
Is Something Very Beautiful.

April 1995
Jonathan is 15

Different people.
Different lives.
Same world.

April 1995
Jonathan is 15

Vindication:
"Is it really your right?"
Justification:
"I couldn't see, there was no light."
Jurisdiction
"I hold power over your fate."
The answer, PEACE:
"They find out too late."

April 1995
Jonathan is 15

The Hypocrisy Of It All

-People hate the world we live in, but only complain and do nothing more

-People want peace but argue and fight with each other over small issues

-People want others to create their hope for the future for them

April 1995
Jonathan is 15

An eagle shot
A friend in trouble
And I can't find my love

Good hearted people
Volunteered time
In this world there is a Peace-Dove

May 1995
Jonathan is 15

Perhaps Dr. Jack Kevorkian does have the right to assist people in suicide. Perhaps he should be allowed to help them end their lives.
Perhaps.
But if Dr. Kevorkian has the right to assist suicide, then perhaps suicide should be a legalized act. In fact, if there are going to be no laws against suicide, then perhaps there's nothing wrong with committing suicide.
Perhaps.
But if there's no reason to say that suicide's wrong, perhaps then we should all end our lives at a time and place we choose.
Perhaps.

May 26, 1995
11:40 PM
Jonathan is 15

When people walk into my room, they may notice many plants around. People often find this interesting and some find it strange. But I usually don't notice plants that way.

June 14, 1995
In Mexico
Jonathan is 15

It seems that on every trip I've taken, I have seen something so significant that it has made me feel insignificant.

June 14, 1995
In Mexico on Love
Jonathan is 15

In my life, whenever I go somewhere that I don't know many people, I am always on the lookout for love; subconsciously afraid that if I am not watching and looking, I may miss or mess up the chance... not by much, but I'll just barely miss it.

06/26/1995
Jonathan is 15

Dear God,

As I'm sitting here tonight, I realize that I do believe in you much as I always have, but I'm trying to figure out how you fit into my life. I know you're in all around me, but maybe I'm unsure of how much control I want you to have in my life and so I suppress you. Help me not to do this.

Summer 1995
Jonathan is 15

Perceptions of Reality
The way I view the world
The way other people perceive me
The way we each see the world individually

July 18, 1995
Jonathan is 15

Last night I was outside and it began to rain, so I came inside. However, I'd forgotten something outside, so as I went outside, the pouring rain stopped immediately, as if just for me. As I opened the door to come back inside, the pouring rain began again. It was as though the rainstorm had stopped for me.

"Very cool," I said to myself.