by Donna Arthur Downs
Every man is an island, a single unit standing alone. Though others connect through life-giving waters, each accounts for himself, his life, his outreach, his death. Whether in this lifetime claimed or realized, all will succumb to The One who declares that at His name every knee shall bow, every tongue confess He is Lord. No one else accounts for me. No one is to blame nor to be praised for who I am except me. I alone am responsible for my reactions, my responses, and who I become. Though others influence me, I alone choose: dwell in the past and wallow in mistakes … or move forward with tenacity. Though the soul within me longs to be part of a whole, wholeness will not, cannot be found in fellow man, but, rather, in only He Who Holds the Key to Eternity.
Donna Arthur Downs is an associate professor at Taylor University. She has been full-time teaching various writing, public relations and media courses since 2001 and advised the award-winning student newspaper and yearbook. She has been published in Grit Magazine, Indiana Voice Journal, and Military Experience and the Arts. Downs did her undergraduate work at Indiana University, Bloomington, and graduated with an Ed.D from Ball State University in Muncie. She has two sons and three remarkable grandchildren.
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