Reena’s Exploration Challenge #Week 28

Posted on March 18, 2018 by Michael

slow-thought-challenge-28

I found this quite a challenge.

Milestones are things we are expected to meet I think, like a baby’s first steps, first words that sort of thing. When we don’t meet those milestones, people worry about us. But when you are older, I wonder what the milestones are meant to be? Death? Illness? Decline?

 

Life does move at a hectic pace, and we are told we need to keep abreast of it if we are to live in the modern world. Time does fly by and not always because we are having fun.

I think as I get older I am more and more aware of the passing of time. Even thinking back to last Friday where I was in the hospital having a procedure to my feet done. I was understandably nervous about it all. But suddenly its Sunday down here and Friday is in the past, and I wonder what’s ahead rather than what’s behind me.

I made a choice in life not to move ‘quickly’. In my work situation, I could have tried to gain promotion, move up the ladder, be like a mate of mine who trampled over anyone who stood in his way to the top.

But that wasn’t for me. My killer instinct was only found on the sporting field and only then in a very mild mannered way.

Today I think about being able to go for a walk in a relatively pain-free way. Previously my walks were at a slow pace, and at times I thought even the snails would zoom past me as I wandered along.

When I look at the prompt, I think about that old saying of being able to stop and smell the roses. There’s so much to say for that.

Today as older age comes my way I can stop and think more about things, appreciate and be more informed having the time to take in things.

Maybe that’s what wisdom is, the ability in older age to see bigger pictures and understand more the ways things are. One would like to think so. As it is time seems to speed up as you age, I have to stop and remind myself of the age I will be this year, and that’s scary in itself, but there is nothing I can do about it, but enjoy each day as best I can, slowly rather than in a rush!!

 

Written for: https://reinventionsreena.wordpress.com/2018/03/16/reenas-exploration-challenge-week-28/

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Time To Write: Awkward [Creative Writing Prompt] – An Awkward Moment

Posted on March 17, 2018 by Michael

ttw-awkward

When the time came, I never suspected it would be as awkward as I imagined.

I was in a play, and in a scene with Gladys Jones when she forgot her lines.

It was opening night. The theatre was packed. There had been great hype about the play, you could cut the audiences expectations with a knife.

But in the scene where Gladys’s character, Isabelle was to hold me in grief over my child being missing in the war, Gladys froze.

The look on her face was terrifying for me, as I knew immediately what it meant. I wasn’t able to save her as my lines fed off hers.

For a minute we froze, looking at each other, me mouthing her lines in the vain hope she would remember. We’d never had this happen in rehearsal, so I was as surprised as she was.

I wasn’t prepared for this, so I jumped ten lines to where Isabelle holds me. With my around her, I whispered in her ear the next line. She looked at me in bewilderment, backed away and fled the stage.

The audience I sense suspected something, as there was as much an awkward silence from them as there was upon the stage.

Somehow I found myself centre stage, staring into the audience, my mind going a hundred miles an hour thinking, “How do I get out of this?”

To save myself, Gladys and the entire production I combined the last two lines of the scene and gracefully exited the stage.

Everyone in attendance from the actors to the audience and crew squirmed in the awkwardness of the moment.

 

Written for: https://rachelpoli.com/2018/03/16/time-to-write-awkward-creative-writing-prompt/

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Saturday Mix – Double Take, 17 March 2018

Posted on March 17, 2018 by Michael

Our homophone sets this week are:

auricle – external part of the ear
oracle – seer

and

hoard – a great stash
horde – a great many people
whored – prostituted

 

My Aunty Oracle could look into the future and foretell the weirdest of things. She was a seer with an uncanny ability, like she said when she met my Cousin Harriett that she would be the one to whore her way through life in a very whored way.

Harriet had an issue with her auricle and so didn’t hear Aunt Oracle clearly and associated the whored bit with her cluttered house, as she was a well-known hoarder with a hoard any hoarder would be proud of.

But of course, both women could be found each Sunday amidst the horde of people at the Sunday Hoarders Hoard held just off Whored Street in the city.

 

 

Written for: https://mindlovemiserysmenagerie.wordpress.com/2018/03/17/saturday-mix-double-take-17-march-2018%ef%bb%bf/

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Thursday photo prompt – Ahead #writephoto – Face Rock

Posted on March 17, 2018 by Michael

ahead

After the long day’s trek we rounded the last bend in the track, and ahead we saw Face Rock sitting in greeting of our arrival.

It was the source of so many stories, most about the magical qualities the rock was supposed to possess.

As the evening descended upon us, we set up our camp spot within the shelter of the rock.

We were very tired, and so it didn’t take us long to get comfortable and drift off to sleep.

I woke to the grinding of the rocks, and it was coming from the rear of the cave. But there was more than a grinding there was also an audible breathing as well.

I flicked on my torch and scanned the back of the cave.

To my surprise, I saw a small man, a leprechaun in fact in green trousers and a striped white and yellow coat.

On his head, he had attached a piece of a tree, which provided him with light. He appeared to be etching something onto the back wall.

My light on him startled him, and he turned quickly to see where the light was coming from.

“Begat and begorrah but you frighted me. What’s your game then?”

“Um we are camping here, just for tonight,” I replied cautiously. All the while searching for my phone to photograph the little man.

“’Tis, my place, did yer make a booking?” he asked looking somewhat authoritative.

“No, I didn’t know I had to,” I replied defensively.

“Ye can’t be comin’ into a man’s home uninvited,” he explained.

We eyed each other off, and I noticed the chisel in his hand. He looked at me and noticed my hand holding my phone.

“There’s no point you pointing that thing at me we leprechauns are not the photo type. Yer be wasting yer time.”

As he finished that last sentence my camera went off the flash illuminating the cave where my companions slept oblivious to what was happening around them.

I looked at the man, but he was now gone.

I laughed to myself thinking I’d captured him in my camera but when I looked there was noting recorded.

Disappointed I returned to my bed as a voice in my ear said, “See I told yer.”

 

Written for: https://scvincent.com/2018/03/15/thursday-photo-prompt-ahead-writephoto/

Posted in Uncategorized | 19 Comments

March 15: Flash Fiction Challenge – Carrot Cake

Posted on March 16, 2018 by Michael

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March 16, 2018, prompt: In 99 words (no more, no less) write a story about carrot cake. It can be classic or unusual. Why is there cake? How does it feature in the story. Go where the prompt leads.

At one point Gran became obsessed with making carrot cake. She’d read that at it might be ‘healthy’ and so took to making them to improve everyone’s health.

She loved to quote the reasons from people she thought knew the ins and outs of these cakes. But the one thing she found hard to justify was the thick layer of icing she’d see on the store bought cakes.

“All that sugar,” she’d say, “ be better saving it for my tea.”

Once Gran started to make anything she became an expert.

Gran’s carrot cakes came icing free.

 

Written for: https://carrotranch.com/2018/03/16/march-15-flash-fiction-challenge/

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100 Week Wednesday: Week 62 – Easy as Pie

Posted on March 16, 2018 by Michael

100ww_w62

Photo by Annie Spratt

Easy as pie he said.

Its just meat and dough isn’t it?

Hours later the pie, or what purported to be a pie was still in the pre-cook phase.

The meat bit was ready.

The pastry another matter. Despite following the recipe, checking and double-checking, the result was disastrous.

Finally out of desperation he bit the bullet and put everything together and into the oven.

He waited, and waited finally taking the pie out and watching to see if the top sunk or the cooked meat oozed out like an erupting volcano.

Holding their breath, they sat down to dinner.

 

Written for: https://bikurgurl.com/2018/03/14/100-week-wednesday-week-62/

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Tale Weaver – #163 – Aging – 15th March

Posted on March 15, 2018 by Michael

african-american-3154942_960_720

Image Google images – Labelled for re-use.

I can’t stop it, as it grows heavier every day.

They say it starts at birth but it’s more and more obvious the older I get.

My bits don’t work as they used to, I need a pill for this and a pill for that,

I rattled of a morning, and I struggle to sleep at night

But there’s not a lot I can do to stop the thing progressing.

I once had a head of hair, and nowadays it’s more an endangered species,

They say, that with age I should acquire wisdom, so I wait for the dawn believing today might be the day.

I’m glad all my childlike ways are still close by me; they help me get through each and every day.

I still love to play, at least my mind says I do, my body seems to have a separate thought on that,

It’s odd that when I was growing up, I was told to keep my mind on the job, now its more about reminding my mind there’s a job to do and that sleep is not on option at any hour of the day.

So finding myself dozing off is becoming a norm, which is fine when there’s no one around to bother if I do.

I think aging can to cruel for some, it’s not always a matter of what we cannot do but more the loss of the will to think we ever could.

But knowing it’s just a matter of time, inevitable as the rising of the sun, I have to adjust and make the best of what I have today.

I can’t run marathons, win the belle of the ball, and beauty contests were never mine to win, as I age and look to each day as a day to be enjoyed knowing that despite the character flaws I have there is someone out there who sees and loves the man I am.

 

Written for: https://mindlovemiserysmenagerie.wordpress.com/2018/03/15/tale-weaver-163-aging-15th-march/

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In Other Words,spontaneous…

Posted on March 14, 2018 by Michael

in-other-words1

Write a story or poem of 5 Lines or Less using the word spontaneous. 

My sister being the spontaneous person she is, burst into song as we gathered round grandma’s grave.

The solemn nature of the occasion shattered by her version of Grandma’s favourite song, Locomotion.

Our Grandmother was a spontaneous woman as well.

She once whacked a man in the supermarket who stepped on her tow.

So in death, Grandma we were sure was spontaneously doing a brand new dance.

 

Written for: https://patriciasplace.me/2018/03/14/in-other-wordsspontaneous/

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FLASH FICTION FOR THE PURPOSEFUL PRACTITIONER- 2018 WEEK #11 – The Kitten

Posted on March 14, 2018 by Michael

kitten

Image: MorgueFile 1449286229de9o8

My friend from down the street often says she’d rather be a cat. The kitten appeared at my front door one morning and made as if it knew me and wanted to come in.

Its big eyes, pleading with me for entry and her soft purr when I picked her up were all selling points I’m sure she had inherited from her mother.

The same day the cat lady passed away and I couldn’t help but think there was some divine conspiracy at play.

I’d never been a cat person, to me they were predators, killers of the native birds.

But this little one won me over, its sheer charm turning my heart to mush.

 

Written for: https://flashfictionforthepracticalpractitioner.wordpress.com/2018/03/14/flash-fiction-for-the-purposeful-practitioner-2018-week-11/

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Photo Challenge #205 – The Birthday Party.

Posted on March 13, 2018 by Michael

dragonchild

It was a dismal day for a birthday

The rain came down, the plans were soggy

All thoughts of outdoor fun were running down the drain.

The games to play, the gifts to unwrap

The cake mum had made so painstakingly,

Sitting abandoned, on a once-promising day.

Her friends turned up, some cancelled,

Too wet their mums not allowing them to get drenched

She sat at the window watching Gran’s magic dragon

Slide and descent the window

And with a tiny puff of smoke climb back up again.

At least she had something to entertain her friends

As the bunting, the streamers, the balloons

Looked the worse for wear as the skies tumbled down.

Her few friends gathered at the kitchen table

The cake was cut and eaten with delight

Then they saw the dragon, wanted to watch, some to touch

But when he scorched their fingers, they pulled back

Squealed with wonder and watched as again he climbed,

And when at the top opened his mouth and let fly a fireball

Of a size, you might not believe.

It turned out a memorable afternoon,

Each child returned home with not just a lolly bag

But stories of a dragon breathing fire and climbing the window.

 

 

Written for: https://mindlovemiserysmenagerie.wordpress.com/2018/03/13/photo-challenge-205/

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