In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “Burning Down the House.”
The house is burning; all people and animals are safe and you can grab 5 things. What do you grab?
The first thing I would grab is my bible. It’s not that I couldn’t easily purchase another, but I am somewhat attached to the one I use on a daily basis. I am sure it would bring me great comfort.
Photos and my Shutterfly photo books would be important, especially the older ones that haven’t been scanned and stored electronically. When I have spoken with people who lost a home in a fire or natural disaster, one of the things they miss are the the photographs, the snapshots in time of a precious memory.
My journals are irreplaceable and something I have always wanted to leave behind for my girls when I’m gone so they could have an even better understanding of who I am and why I made the choices that I have. They are many and scattered. Hmm, maybe I need to rethink their storage.
My mother’s journal would also have to go with me because it is all I have left of her, as far as material things go, that resonates with her voice and her passion. I love to look at her cursive handwriting and read her deepest thoughts.
I guess lastly and in a more practical sense, my purse. It would contain my wallet and phone which would likely benefit me in the days ahead as I work to get my life back to normal.
I’m not someone who has a great attachment to material things. I throw away more than I keep. My kids will tell you that I kept “samples” of their artwork, but I’m not the mom who has every thing they ever did. I don’t have love notes from high school or pressed flowers or the first tooth I or my girls ever lost. I do have a collection of special items that allow me trips down memory lane, but I probably don’t experience the same cluttered journey of a pack rat. Sometimes I regret this, but not often enough to change my ways.
It’s hard to know what items you would really miss, because it’s all the little things that make the house a home. As long as I had my faith and my husband (and of course my kids although they are grown and gone), we could start over anywhere and with anything and be happy.
Daily Prompt: Burning down the house
Daily Prompt: Pick a pen or a font
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In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “Pens and Pencils.”
When was the last time you wrote something substantive — a letter, a story, a journal entry, etc. — by hand? Could you ever imagine returning to a pre-keyboard era?
I still write by hand quite often. I honestly believe that the feelings and musings flow from me better when I am writing them as opposed to clicking on a keyboard. I journal in pen and write many of my “first draft” blogs in pen or pencil. I feel very fortunate to have a journal with some of my mother’s poetry and thoughts written in her beautiful hand. It’s like having a piece of who she was and I am certain that it would not have carried the sentiment and meaning if I had been handed to me on a flash drive.
There is also something very special about receiving a hand written letter. The penmanship seems to flow with the writer’s personality and even captures their mood. An email from a loved one is appreciated and can convey love and emotion, but receiving a fat envelope with that familiar scrawl on the outside trumps it every time in my opinion.
During school days, it was nice to see a note written by your teacher telling you what a great job you had done. It showed that they had taken the time to seriously consider your hard work and meant much more than just a mere sticker or gold star. Speaking of school; who still has their high school yearbook and doesn’t enjoy looking back at the silly “signatures” our young and immature, yet loyal friends left us to remember them over the years.
We live in such a hurry up and rush world that things like letters or even handwritten notes are more meaningful than ever. They have the power to cause up to pause for a moment and consider some of our quickly dying past times that perhaps we should rescue before they are forever a memory.
And with that, I think I will go write a card or letter, with a pen!
What a wonderful thing is the mail, capable of conveying across continents a warm human hand-clasp. ~Author Unknown
Seed of faith
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In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “In Good Faith.”
Describe a memory or encounter in which you considered your faith, religion, spirituality — or lack of — for the first time.
I was raised to have faith and I can’t remember a time when I didn’t have it. Thankfully, my mom and grandmother took me to church faithfully, and taught me to read the bible.
One memory I have that brings back a smile is when I received the gift of a mustard seed necklace. I don’t remember who it was a gift from, but I think it was on my birthday. It was a little gold chain, sporting a tiny orb which contained an even tinier mustard seed. The mustard seed may have been tiny, but it helped ingrain in my young mind the scripture promising that even a little seed of faith moved mountains.
I loved wearing it and if my memory serves me correctly, I believe it broke and was put to rest somewhere beneath the spinning ballerina in my jewelry box. I suspect when I was a little older, I thought I was too cool for a mustard seed necklace and chose to throw it away instead of fixing it.
In my almost 50 years, with all the bumps in the road, and the ups and the downs, I have often thought about that little necklace and what it symbolized. The promise has proven true time and time again.
Linen rose
Matthew 17:20 So Jesus said to them, “Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.
Long walks and dark chocolate 