What waits for me? Who knows? Beyond the rippling tide: adventures – or a lazy day of watching seabirds glide.
A siren call across the swell pulls me from my chair. Away to sea, my boat and me, with hope of havens fair!
Idyllic isles or rolling seas, excursions o’er the foam; I’ll spend this month meandering intriguing paths to roam.
Methinks the month will fly… I’ll pass through sun and rain. I shall return when “dog days” burn and dock my boat again.
🙂
No, I’m not really gliding off into the rolling sea, but I am taking a holiday from blogging in the month of July. I’ll continue my Ragtag Daily Prompt duties Sunday evenings and I intend to keep posting interesting words & meanings on my Word Buds site but otherwise, you won’t see me here very much before August 2.
First I should say that all bloggers are welcome to join in and write a post in response to the prompts. So if these prompt words give you an idea for a post, just click on the names (links) above for more details.
Michael McGough — Pixabay
A person could give various responses to the image of “fire in the sky.” A blazing sunrise or sunset would qualify. Here on the prairie we see some amazing sundogs, partial rings or halos on one side or both sides of the sun.
Of course one of the main displays of fire in the sky is lightning, which reminds me of a couple of stories I once heard.
My husband’s mother spent her first eight years in Manitoba and apparently the electrical storms there were furious and unpredictable back in those days. She says every time there was a thunderstorm her parents would gather the children all around in one room. After moving to Saskatchewan, they did this during the first few storms but soon decided our storms here didn’t pose a threat, so her parents quit this practice.
Visiting friends in Manitoba once, there was a wild thunderstorm, but no serious damage. In the morning they recalled another storm they’d had where ball lightning fell from the clouds and they watched balls of fire roll along the road by their place. So we understand why Grandpa & Grandma Letkeman took the precautions they did while they lived in Manitoba.
Weather patterns have changed a lot over the years, maybe due to settlement and many trees planted here on the prairie. Records show and old timers talk of wild storms, blizzards and heat waves like we never see these day — thankfully!
Lightning can have really unpredictable consequences. We read an account where a farmer had just built a new barn, the door of which had the standard Z of brace-boards across the back to fortify the vertical door boards. Nails holding this all together were evenly spaced all along this Z.
Soon after, an electrical storm passed over their farm. The next morning the farmer went out to do his chores and when he slid open the barn doors, the wood all fell in a heap at his feet. A lightning bolt had hit the barn and just jumped from nail to nail along the door, sizzling every one. One tug on the door and the whole thing gave way.
A fellow Canadian blogger, Xandria, has come up with a new “tag” and Shweta at My Random Ramblingshas nominated me.
According to Xandria, the requirement is simple: “All you have to do is tag me in the post – (I really want to know what you put down) and list out 10 of your favourite feelings! No pressure to do this, just thought it would be fun, and something different.”
Free photos — Pixabay
The “feelings” bloggers list are mostly favourite activities they enjoy, that make them feel good. It’s hard to separate the two. For example, when I think of walking on a beach on a sunny day and feeling the soft warmth of sand beneath my feet, that’s as much an activity as a feeling, but it works for both. The feelings would be warmth and contentment.
WARMTH and CONTENTMENT are two of my favourite feelings, but when the day is really hot, I’m delighted by a cool breeze or an air-conditioned room. So really I should add COMFORTABLE to my list. Now, if I were an avid fan of jogging or sports, I’d probably enjoy feeling hot, sweaty, and sort of exhausted. But there aren’t many humans who like feeling uncomfortable.
When I read a book blurb and the book sounds really promising, my curiosity kicks in and I’m eager to check if the story’s as interesting as it sounds. Or you hear that someone whom you’ve heard lots about will be in your area and you’re eager to meet them. EAGERNESS is a favourite feeling and CURIOSITY usually is, too. (Unless I’m curious what other might be saying about me. Fear and worry aren’t ever good feelings. 🙂
When I’ve tried to do something that takes effort, and I accomplish what I set out to do, I feel PLEASED, which is a good kind of SATISFIED. When the work is done and I flop into my recliner with that good book, I feel RELAXED.
To feel love toward someone, thankfulness for what someone has done for me, and/or loved by someone are among the best feelings we can have. So LOVED, LOVING, and GRATITUDE go on my top-ten list.
As I go about my work, my mind turns over many thoughts, and slowly a story takes shape. I can see how this will play out. Or perhaps I glance out the window and see something that impresses me. I love being INSPIRED and ENTHUSED, wanting to share with others some thought that impresses me and might give them pleasure, too. GENEROUS is a good feeling, in my books.
HAPPINESS is a wonderful feeling, although it’s pretty hard to nail down as a single. Happiness is rather the result of other feelings coming together to make me feel great.
And that gets me to fifteen enjoyable feelings. Any of you other bloggers who want to give this a try, please accept this challenge and list your own. Check back with Xandria to see more details, and leave her a pingback.
Crispina has issued her latest creative writing challenge: CCC #81
“Every Wednesday I post a photo (this week it’s that one above.)
You respond with something CREATIVE.”
To see the rules and get the image, CLICK HERE.
And here’s the photo that will inspire us this week:
And here’s my response:
ROWING WITH THE FLOW
“Row, row, row your boat, gently down the stream…”
“Oh, Mom. You always come up with those silly little songs. No matter what you see, you have to sing about it.”
“That’s because I’m so old. I’ve heard many songs in my life. It’s all about triggers, my girl. When you get to be my age, you’ll understand.”
Melissa rolled her eyes.
“Actually, I wish we were rowing down this stream instead of walking beside it. Wouldn’t that be lovely?”
“Yeah. Let’s rent a paddle-boat and do it sometime. I’d go for an espresso right now, though…and there’s a Coffee Kicks two blocks ahead.” Melissa pointed, then sang the latest Coffee Kicks jingle.
Mom chuckled.
Realizing what she’d done, Melissa wailed, “Oh, no – it’s happening already! I’m becoming just like my mother.”
“And your grandma. Where do you think I got it from?”
On Sunday I came across another writing challenge offered by host blogger Brenda Warren, called The Sunday Whirl. Here’s the banner:
And here’s the word list for Wordle #457:
I took the given words and wrote the story on Sunday already, just haven’t gotten around to posting it. The above words, in various forms, mostly appear in the first few paragraphs. The second part I wrote just because I do like a good story. 🙂
A HINT OF FEAR
Larissa had won a scholarship to this college and she wasn’t going to waste it. She concentrated on her studies, foregoing holidays, declining invites to weekend parties. She even limited her trips back home so she could study.
Her diligence paid off in spades. When the marks were handed back after the last set of exams, she had to look twice. But it was true: she’d aced the exams. She was going to graduate with honors. She plowed her fist into the air and did a little pirouette.
She resisted the urge to dance around the room. Instead she thanked her professors and headed home where she could do all the singing and dancing she wanted to. Ah, but first a stop at Dairy Delightful, where she indulged in a delicious hot fudge sundae with whipped cream. This might inflate her waistline a bit, but she’d take a long jog tomorrow.
“Fly me to the moon and let me play among the stars,” she sang as she slid the key in the lock on her apartment door. She opened the door partway when the strangest feeling hit her. Something felt very wrong, like someone was here. The odd sense of danger made her skin prickle.
She shook it off as imagination and stepped into the apartment, but that feeling of apprehension kept her from closing the door. Made her sigh a prayer. “God, if there’s really something wrong here, show me somehow.”
Though her eye saw nothing unusual, she did pick up a slight difference in the air. Had she left a window open? “Once I get a good-paying job I’m moving up in the world,” she promised herself. “Tenth floor at least.”
She straightened her spine and told herself firmly, “There is nothing wrong. I am not going to give in to some silly fear and let it spoil this beautiful day.”
But as she entered the room, the slight air movement brought to her a hint of stale tobacco. She didn’t smoke and neither had anyone else when they visited her. Acting on impulse she backed out of the room, shut the door, and locked it. Then she called her cousin Matt, grateful that she had his number on speed dial.
Handy having a cop in the family. So what if he’d find nothing amiss and tease her about being a chicken or needle her about her good imagination. She wasn’t taking any chances. Not like that girl in the news last week.
Where we live, this is definitely the season for blooming. Flowering trees and shrubs, including the chokecherries in the woods beside us, are blossoming in preparation for another summer of production. Spring bulbs are blooming; gardeners are setting out bedding plants.
However, my mind went to another kind of blooming. I’m sure you all have stood on a sunny day and watched the cumulus clouds above you expand and change.
Image by Alexas_Fotos at Pixabay
I have, and I find observing that process of change fascinating. Before my eyes they seem to bloom. Little white lumps spreading up and out — it’s like watching the time-lapse of a cauliflower developing.
Thoughts are like that in a way — at least mine are. I see a writing prompt and ideas start to form. This morning I chanced to hear another blogger and fellow Christian speaking about the importance of sharing facets of godly wisdom by means of storytelling, and brainwaves started to billow. (Click here to listen to his inspiring talk.)
Thinking of sharing our inspirations, and how ideas and wisdom circulate, I wrote this verse two days ago:
She left a thought that echoed; her friends bounced it around. It wasn’t meant to shake the world but still it seemed profound.
It resonated with her friends and spread from ear to ear; whenever it seemed fitting someone was bound to hear.
It spread to their descendants this bit of wisdom kind; it lightened many labors, eased many a troubled mind.
They were not so outstanding, those words that soothed one fretter, but her homespun bit of wisdom made all our lives the better.
Take care everyone, and don’t be afraid to share your bit of life-learned wisdom today. Who knows but what it may bless many other lives.
