Reena’s Exploration Challenge #126 – Isolation

Posted on March 13, 2020 by Michael

rec126-isolation

I live in a rural part of the country where isolation is easy to come by and one that is readily chosen over the crowded city.

I do go to the city, it’s a nice place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there.

Where I live, my house sits on the edge of a flood plain, I have what I consider an ‘ocean view’ as I look out across fields rich in crops at this time of the year.

In this present time of rampant virus’, there’s an advantage in living where I do. I can shun society if I need to, though I do still need to go to the shops, which I did early this morning to stock up on all things necessary, bar toilet paper of course.

I like my own company a lot of the time, though I do find like company very rewarding, especially when it’s as enjoyable as I find it these days.

Having children ensures you can never live an isolated lifestyle, yesterday a sick grandson came for the day, and it’s good to know my kids can call on me when the time comes, and they need my help.

Years ago, I read that, ‘no man is an island’, and John Donne’s words are true today. We need other people from time to time, but occasionally being alone is ok too.

 

Written for: https://reinventionsreena.wordpress.com/2020/03/12/reenas-exploration-challenge-126/

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Three Things Challenge #172 – The Sticky Key

Posted on March 12, 2020 by Michael

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HONEY
KEY
PLACE

Sometimes it was difficult to place just where the key fitted. After all, it was sticky with honey, the bees having incorporated it into the place of residence, and for the most par,t the honey was enriched by the magical qualities of the key.

Added to that if you could extract it, and attempt to clean the key by licking off the honey, you felt a warmth within you that could at best be only described.

Maybe that was why my grandfather called his place, ‘The Sticky Key’, and sold honey from the hives at prices only the rich could afford.

 

Written for: https://pensitivity101.wordpress.com/2020/03/12/three-things-challenge-172/

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Crimson’s Creative Challenge #70 – Crisp’s Physical Self.

Posted on March 12, 2020 by Michael

broken-footings

Crisp, my aged companion, was feeling a bit the worse for wear after a long day hiking the countryside and stopping to admire yet another ancient ruin.

We were looking at the collapsed footings at the side of the Church of Righteous Love and Devotion when she said:

“I know how these steps must feel, sometimes it just gets all too much, and you want to give up, sit down, let everything go around you and thumb your nose at the world and say, its all come to this.”

“That’s a bit pessimistic,” I replied glad to take the weight off my legs as well.

“It’s like you’ve served your purpose in life, and you come to the realisation you’ve not much more to give so feel yourself breaking down, bit by bit.”

“Good thing there’s still some spark left in you,” I added.

She took some strength from that comment for she added: “There are times when I realise you do serve some purpose. Help me up and lets get on.”

 

Written for: https://crispinakemp.com/2020/03/11/crimsons-creative-challenge-70/

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Tale Weaver – #266 – Backbone – 12th March – Finally

Posted on March 12, 2020 by Michael

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She’d said on more than one occasion that he needed to show a bit of backbone.

Rolling over in submission could only be done so many times. He had to at some stage stand up for himself.

But it was all about keeping the peace.

It was all about protecting the children.

Those were the simple facts and when he did finally act there were choruses of amazement at the brazen nature of his actions.

It was one Tuesday evening when after another round of feeling he had sold his soul once again, a voice inside him said enough was enough.

You can’t do this he was told what about the children?

You can’t do this he was told, what will people say?

But, he replied, I am doing it.

And that was that.

In the face of adversity, he stood up, showed some backbone, acted, and never looked back.

 

Written for: https://mindlovemiserysmenagerie.wordpress.com/2020/03/12/tale-weaver-266-backbone-12th-march/

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Tale Weaver – #265 – Library of the Imagination – 5th March

Posted on March 5, 2020 by Michael

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It had to have been a dream. What else could it have been even though it seemed so real at the time.

 

I was standing in the weirdest library. Books stretched from one end of the room to the other. To make it more puzzling, the books were in every shade of blue you could imagine.

I found myself lost within the titles. There were medium-sized titles such as “Unrealistic Realities” to paper-thin texts like “Things my Father Taught Me’.

The one that did intrigue me was a rather thick tome, of about twelve hundred pages, “Famous Arseholes” and sure enough, as I perused the pages, there were the names of so many of histories famous identities. Added to the famous names were those of people I knew, neighbours, uncles and aunts whose reputations were long sullied by the course of history.

There were humorous texts, “The Answer to the Question you Ask”, “The Gym and How to Avoid it’.

It seemed that no matter where I looked, the titles were expansive and engaging.

A voice spoke behind me: “Is there anything I can help you with?”

Turning, I saw a small bespectacled man, a pince-nez attached to his nose and a most engaging look in his eyes. I didn’t expect to meet anyone in the library, but he announced himself as the Librarian to the Imagination, and he was here to serve as best he could.

“I don’t think so,” I replied, “they are all just paintings, and I’m enjoying the titles.”

“Paintings, you say? Are you sure?”

And with that, he extracted a copy of “Things You Might Not Do With Flowers” and laid it out in front of me.

“Very popular among the florists,” he said his fingers caressing the pages. Then again, “When You Thought You Were Helping” has been a most thumbed volume with the charity sector.

Each book he returned to the shelf it came from and to me it was all an illusion until I was sure he was just as much an illusion as everything else.

There was a part of me that urged me to wake up, I fought the reality of it all and sought some relief from the images.

Finally, I sat up and breathed a sigh of relief, then looking across the room on my wall I saw:

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Image from the “Long Story Short” exhibition by Lucas Grogan.

 

Written for:https://mindlovemiserysmenagerie.wordpress.com/2020/03/05/tale-weaver-265-library-of-the-imagination-5th-march/

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Three Things Challenge #164 – A Lethal Blow

Posted on March 4, 2020 by Michael

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The kick was a low blow delivered with enough pressure to make the boy gasp from the excruciatingly painful injury.

The victim lay writhing on the ground as his team gathered round. The attacker stood back, soaking up the buzz of having eliminated an opponent.

Just as he thought he’d gotten away with it, he felt the kick of the victim’s mum as she delivered several low blows placing pressure on his precious bits with her new handbag now a lethal weapon.

Within a week, both boys had recovered and were ready to resume their battle against one another.

KICK
LOW
PRESSURE

 

Written for: https://pensitivity101.wordpress.com/2020/03/04/three-things-challenge-164/

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Crimson’s Creative Challenge #69 – Crisp and the Gnome.

Posted on March 4, 2020 by Michael

homeless-gnomes

We’d had a good day wandering the village and we were resting in the park observing the small gardens sprinkled throughout it.

“My Gran,” said Crisp, “had a concrete gnome in her garden. She called it Geoffrey. Every five years she gave him a fresh coat of paint, to smarten him up she’d say. Gran reckoned it was important to freshen Geoffrey up as he would move about in her garden and if she neglected him too much he may well move out.”

It was easy to see where Crisp acquired so much of her imagination. It was a family trait. “Gran said that one-year Geoffrey scarpered and they found him down on the jetty fishing. Caught a few too so she said. We never doubted her.”

This was said in the same way I often felt I could never doubt Crisp.

 

 

Written for: https://crispinakemp.com/2020/03/04/crimsons-creative-challenge-69/

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Tale Weaver #264 – Awake In The Night – 27th February. – Longing for the Dawn.

Posted on February 27, 2020 by Michael

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I look at the clock, its 1.23am.

I calculate its been two hours since I turned off my light.

My bladder screams at me for release.

That task completed I see it’s now 1.25am.

Sunrise is not for a lot more hours.

I read the digital news, find an interesting story that doesn’t necessarily commit me to read about political corruption of some sort.

Once completed, there’s a second source of news and I look at that. I glance at the clock, 1.52, I’ll need to be back asleep by 2.30 at the latest.

The Guardian entertains me for twenty minutes or so and then I touch the Solitaire icon and up pops the game I only play in the wee small hours. My mind goes to the challenge, can I get a game out tonight. I play two or three then turn out the light and try to sleep.

Some nights it’s easier than others. Some nights it’s a matter of laying there, thinking will I take drugs or not. The sleeping drugs will bring on sleep but I fear the feeling of being zonked out for half the next day.

It’s hard to settle my mind. I compose many a blog post at this time. Some nights I sit up in bed and write and post it. It kills more time.

I lay down once again and this time when I open my eyes time has passed and its near dawn.

This is such a familiar routine, it’s part of my cycle.

The middle of the night is quiet, it’s dark, I’m never at ease, I hang out for the dawn.

 

Written for: https://mindlovemiserysmenagerie.wordpress.com/2020/02/27/tale-weaver-264-awake-in-the-night-27th-february/

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Crimson’s Creative Challenge #68 – Crisp and things Modern.

Posted on February 27, 2020 by Michael

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“How quaint,” said Crisp my aged companion as we wandered along in the newer part of the town.

I could see how her attention was piqued as the town was more known for its history rather than its modern features.

“There’s a plaque,” I said, “that says it’s a link between the old and the new.”

“Well that’s a good thing,” she announced, “God knows the place needs something.”

Crisp wasn’t one to hold back when it came to opinion. She had one for every situation. “I like the old best,” she said, “a bit like you, I couldn’t have stood the younger version of you. You’d have driven me nuts.”

“Thanks, “I said, “you would have done the same to me.”

“Rubbish, I was always loveable, you just had to look below my acerbic surface, and there lay perfection.”

I rolled my eyes and walked on.

 

Written for: https://crispinakemp.com/2020/02/26/crimsons-creative-challenge-68/

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What do you see # 18 – February 24, 2020 – Abandoned

Posted on February 25, 2020 by Michael

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Abandoned, that’s what I see.

Dropped where it was laid to rest.

Gathering dust, the seat a shadow of its former self.

So much like the state, I have come to

Old and of little use,

No longer functional.

In reality, I can feel the weeds and debris growing and gathering around me. As a friend once told me, “I can’t whistle anymore and nor can I run for the bus.”

What’s to become of me, I wonder as I once again struggle to get up from the lounge,

It’s so easy to just sit,

Stare and remember.

For that’s all life becomes, a series of memories, ones you hang onto

Afraid to let go for beyond them is the unthinkable.

Like my old bike, I too have been discarded,

Left to rust, I know it’s happening

As my bones creak and groan as I move,

All effort is met with resistance

But I know there’s no mileage in giving in,

So, I push myself up once again,

Step forward and boil the kettle

Hoping its where I last left it.

 

Written for: https://lifeafter50forwomen.com/2020/02/24/what-do-you-see-18-february-24-2020/

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