I decided to smile on purpose, twelve & more years ago. I decided to help my face grow into a pleasant appearance, so that I wouldn’t have frown lines and scowls engraved in the delicate muscles of my countenance. Once they’re carved, that’s what I have to work with. I know this. I study faces. … [Read more…]
I am thankful today for sheets on the clothesline,sunshine to dry them,and indoor plumbing. I like the fact that those things could have been on my grandmother’s thank-you list, too. I also like the fact that when I choose to be thankful it changes my world.
I wrote this a few days before the Five Minute Friday prompt was published for May 17. But it was a five-minute work, and it fits the theme, “Song.” I hope it still fits the rules, because it’s the only song I’m coming up with during my busy, wearying, joy-filled days. I’m going to say “it’s a … [Read more…]
Comfort ye, my people, saith your God. It’s not a cozy comfort I’m thinking about. It’s a comfort in knowing a cozy comfort awaits. Sometimes life is hard. Busy and intense and protracted like labor. Which is not to say it isn’t good. Life is good and hard. And comfortable. Someday may never come, but … [Read more…]
Today I am cardboard. Not marble, not patiently formed, gracefully curved, caressed into life or beauty. No, marble is alive. I am cardboard. Not metal, not smoothly reflective, carefully polished, pressed into service or function. No, metal is alive. I am cardboard. Cardboard, intentionally severed, mindlessly shredded, drowned to submission or pulp. All the life … [Read more…]
I couldn’t eat at the reception for my son’s wedding. There was plenty of food, and I liked it just fine. But halfway through the meal I remembered that there would be a mother-son dance and we hadn’t practiced. We’d barely talked about it, weeks before. My stomach tensed and my throat closed up and … [Read more…]
I was brave this weekend because every single thing I did was something I’d never done before. I was a first-time mother of the groom. That’s why I’m writing today instead of Friday; it took me this long to have five minutes to sit still and write. I tell my children that being brave doesn’t … [Read more…]
I did it! I’ve missed three weeks, I think, doing Five Minute Fridays. I am intentionally not going back to count. This morning I saw the prompt and just wrote. I didn’t feel guilty about the ones I’d skipped. I didn’t think, “Oh, I should go back and do those others so I’ll have done … [Read more…]
“You Don’t Know Me.” It’s an old Ray Charles tune to me; it was on one of my daddy’s vinyl albums. Mother didn’t like Ray; she thought he was too raw, I think. Daddy and I liked him just fine, and I still warm to the edginess in his voice and peformance style. This is … [Read more…]
I found a jewel in a surprising box. Its beauty took my breath away. Days later, I’m still trying to take in how it could have such an effect on me. It’s a gift shop, I suppose: Seven Silver Seas, in Maggie Valley, NC. I don’t like gift shops, especially here. I only go in … [Read more…]