He carries his memories like patchwork stitched from both joy and regret, frayed at the edges, stubborn at the seams. A quilt of moments warming him against the long, unpromised night.
Written for Sammi Cox’s Weekend Writing Prompt, where the challenge is “patchwork” in exactly 31 words. Image conjured using ChatGPT.
Wouldn’t you like to expose your newer readers to some of your earlier posts that they might never have seen? Or remind your long term subscribers of posts that they might not remember? Each Friday I will publish a post I wrote on this exact date in a previous year.
How about it? Why don’t you reach back into your own archives and highlight a post that you wrote on this very date in a previous year? You can repost your Flashback Friday post on your blog and pingback to this post. Or you can just write a comment below with a link to the post you selected.
If you’ve been blogging for less than a year, go ahead and choose a post that you previously published on any day this past year and link to that post in a comment.
This was originally posted on September 26, 2018.
He was my constant companion
Always by my side
He was my comfort and my joy
His love for me was unconditional
As was mine for him
He was loyal to a fault
There was nothing he wouldn’t do for me
Nor anything I wouldn’t do for him
He was my very best friend
Who accepted me as I am
Flaws and all
It was a ten years ago today
When we took our last walk
He lay in the autumn leaves
One final time
Before giving me his last, sad, goodbye look
And I still can’t stop missing him
(100 words)
Written for Bikurgurl’s 100 Word Wednesday prompt. Photo credit: Tereza Hošková.
For today’s Sunday Poser, Sadje wants to know…
These days we either visit or are visited by our son, daughter-in-law, and our grandchildren two or three times a week. And there is nothing that brings me more joy than the time I spend with our almost four-year-old old grandson and almost two-and-a-half-year-old granddaughter. They truly light up my life.
My blog comes in next. The joy of writing something, publishing it, and receiving almost instant feedback from people all around the globe is addicting.
Then there is our rescue dog that we brought home two years ago. We rescued her, but I sometimes feel like she rescued us by offering us her unconditional love.
And of course, there is my wife, Mrs. Fandango. Her love is far from unconditional, but at the risk of using a trite saying from the movie “Jerry McGuire,” she completes me. And that brings me immeasurable joy.
I blog every day
It’s a daily habit
It brings me joy
Yes, one simple thing I do that brings me joy is blogging.
A close second, though, is spending time with our grandchildren.
For her weekly Blogging Insights prompts, Dr. Tanya provides us with a quote about blogging or writing and asks us to express our opinion about said quote.
This week’s quote is from Ron Dawson, a Special Educational Needs educator, psychologist, researcher, and author.
I started my first blog in 2005 and I had no idea of what I wanted to accomplish with it or what it could do if successful. I just jumped right in and started writing and posting what I wrote. When I started This, That, and the Other, my fifth blog, in 2017, I still had no specific accomplishment goal or goals in mind. I just wanted a platform — or maybe a soapbox — on which to express myself.
I’m very happy with my blog and I feel that, based upon the number of visitors, views, likes, and comments my posts generate each day, it is relatively successful. What that “success” has enabled me to do is to be a part of a wonderful community of other bloggers, where we can share our stories, our poems, our photographs, our beliefs, our perspectives, our opinions, our passions, our experiences, our frustrations, and our lives with one another. And that truly brings me joy.
What Ron Dawson said about needing to decide what you want to accomplish with your blog before you start it may be good advice for some, especially if there’s a definitive niche you’re focusing on or a specific audience you wish to reach.
I don’t think, however, it’s essential for those of us who are “casual” bloggers. I say that, if you love to write and you wish to share what you write with a community of others who also love to write, you should just do it.
It was an auspicious end to the week for my wife and me. Our son and his wife brought our grandson to our house on Saturday. The seven month old boy was dressed in a baby t-shirt that said “Best Big Brother Ever.”
When I saw him wearing that shirt, I looked at my son and asked, “Does that mean that a new grandchild will be added to our family next year?” With a big smile on this face, he nodded affirmatively.
I have to laud my son and his wife for their imaginative way of breaking the good news to us. The only description I can think of for our feelings was glee, and there was no way to mask our happiness and joy at the great news.
Written for these daily prompts: Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (auspicious), MMA Storytime (week), Your Daily Word Prompt (family), Word of the Day Challenge (laud), The Daily Spur ( description), and Ragtag Daily Prompt (mask).
Do you need a muse to get your creative juices flowing during these hot, sultry days of August? Try a dose of Fandango’s Dog Days of August prompt.
At 6:00 am Pacific time each day this month, I will be posting a new theme. Today’s theme is “something that brings you joy.” Is it your family? Friends? Your job? Your religion? Share a story, a poem, a photo, a drawing, some music, or whatever you wish to share about something that brings you joy.
If you wish to participate, please write your post, use the tag #FDDA, and create a pingback to this post or manually add your link in the comments.
And, of course, take some time to read the other responses to this prompt. See how other bloggers are coping with the dog days of August.
He played his fiddle for the passengers on the ferry boat that carried them from one island to the other.
It didn’t pay very much, since he worked exclusivity for tips, but he was retired and didn’t do it for the money.
He did it because he loved to play the fiddle, he was outside in the fresh air every day, and he loved seeing how much joy his music brought to the faces of those he played for, especially the youngsters.
Written for this week’s Three Line Tales from Sonya. Photo credit: Calum MacAuley.
It’s Monday and Melanie is once again asking us to Share Our World with each other. She has posed some intriguing questions for us this week, so let’s just hop to it.
What is truth?
Now this is a question I wish I would have thought of to ask on my weekly provocative question prompt. Technically speaking, truth is something that conforms with facts and reality. Unfortunately, in today’s world, we have “alternative facts” when the actual facts are in conflict with what someone chooses to believe. And we have “fake news” when the real news (i.e., reality) is not consistent with what someone chooses to accept as actual reality. Furthering the blurring of truth, we have Photoshopped images and deepfake videos that effectively “alter” facts and reality. Bottom line, we are living in a post-truth age and I’m not sure that the notion of truth even exists anymore. Any that’s the truth.
What’s one thing people would never know about you just by looking at you?
That I’m a stable genius. Oh wait. That’s the one thing people would never think about Donald Trump.
Do loud noises bother you?
Unfortunately, with my left ear being totally blocked, every noise I hear gets trapped inside my head and bothers me. Hopefully, after my surgery at the end of this month, that will be corrected.
If you were guaranteed the correct answer to just one question, what would you ask?
Seriously? You asked in the first question, “What is truth?” and my answer was that we live in a post-truth age. So is there really such a thing as a “correct answer” anymore? I guess that would depend upon who you ask.
What fills YOUR heart with joy?
Right now, not much. But seeing Trump impeached (likely) and removed from office (unlikely) would fill my heart with unbridled joy.
Facts, Fictions & Fantasies 