Wednesday Words: Cassandra and...?

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Not yet mastering the art of being actively locomotive, Cassandra was magnificent in her crawling skills.  The speed with which she traveled from sofa to the front door was eerily reminiscent of her unholy older brother.

Even with her sodden diaper and even though her butt emitted enough methane to fire up a gaslight, Cassandra held her own in travel time.

Samuel*** watched his baby sister with a villainous smile.  Oh the places we will go…the things we will do.

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*** The World of Samuel starts at this site:

Samuel's first intro to the blog world

and continues in Chronicles of Samuel

Samuel and Cassandra's adventures will take up after summer.

Credit for the bold and underlined words go to Delores at Under the Porch Light who has been fighting a cold and all sorts of things that go with such.

You can access other participants in the Wednesday Words by clicking on the yellow flowers in a stream, to add your own short stories, poems, flash fiction, etc.  You will never regret doing this, and you will always wonder why you didn't.

The First and Last Day of Revival

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Wednesday night settled down on Nancy** and the teen boys like wet cement on a rough road.  

They were all exhausted, man woman child, pure worn out.  Brother Leo Berry, all grey and stooped, stepped up to the platform.

“THOSE…and his pointed a gnarly finger to the back rows…youngsters are the next generation of YOUR CHURCH!  They are lost!" 

He wiped his face with a wrinkled kerchief, coughed raggedly, and continued.

 “WELL!  Not one single soul---NOT ONE---has sought forgiveness at God’s holy altar!"

Taking one big oratory breath, he boomed: 

"This revival cannot end without salvation.  I will keep preaching the truth until souls are saved, even into next week!”

Well, universal gasps were turned into gulps.
  

The congregation could not afford another week, the church sisters were tired of cooking, and the Pastor’s kids were numb from sleeping on the floor of the pastorate.

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The boys murmured to each other, looking from one to another.  

They were the souls he talked about it, and they knew it.  Absolutely knew it, and hung their heads.

The oldest white-haired lady in the church, nearly blind and almost deaf Sister Fast rose to her feet and hobbled to the altar.  “I must be one of those souls! I didn't hear much of what you preached, but I sure don’t want any sin in me.”

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Ushers hurried to place a chair beneath her before she toppled.  Shocked, Harris and Berry locked eyes.  What do we do now?  A few beloved old ladies joined in prayer with Sister Fast.

Nancy's jaw dropped.  Sister Fast?  Nooo, that is just not right...if she is at the altar, then....She drew her own conclusion and bowed her head.

Some deacons gathered in the back, whispering and shaking their heads. 

Wednesday was the last night of Revival.  

Source: driving at night

...with a box of leftover food, $40 in his pocket, and miles down the road, Leo Berry pulled off the highway.  

Opening the trunk, he pulled out a pillow and ratty quilt.  He stretched out in the back seat, wondering how Martha and his kids were this week. 

 Martha, this has been an awful week.  How I miss you... Before his eyes closed, Leo prayed.  Oh, Lord God!  Those boys need You, need You badly.  Keep 'em safe.  Save them, Lord.

This is the purpose and goal for an evangelist.  He never knows what happens after he leaves.  He only knows that he obeyed his calling to preach God's Word.

Old Men in Caps

Source: RWLinder

Old men in caps

Canes, walkers, wheelchairs

Old men.

USMC ret. WWII

Army WWII

Vietnam Veteran

Korean War

USNavy

Army Air Corp—

Women who served,
but hidden.

Men and Women
not on the front lines,
but serving nonetheless.

Gold embroidered

On black.

Old men in caps.

Walking away,

Walking on ahead.

Veteran of Iwo Jima, many battles in WWII

Community Communing

Just saying “Memorial Day” sets off a slide show in my head.   Flowers on graves….flags…Veterans in parade…community dinner…people sitting together…laughter...gossip…tractors…pick-ups…Those are all part of a very long slide show.

Oh, I could write about feeling like an indentured servant as a teenager serving desserts and cleaning up.

But, mainly the message here is one of community and communion: Together, worshiping, sharing memories, passing on traditions, and meeting as one.

This song comes to mind: Let Us Break Bread Together

Community communing.  Something worth defending.

One Down

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Every Wednesday, Delores at Under the Porch Light tosses out six words for participants to play with, and often a sentence prompt.  

This week her words are: absent  vacant  empty  destiny  eyes  glaring,  with
her sentence prompt:

a juvenile urge to run and hide overwhelmed him

Sometimes I write my take on the words in her comments and sometimes I will use her words to create a fuller post on a Friday.

The Battle of Honey Springs

I decided to do both with these words.  

The sense of facing desolation and being alone--timeless themes throughout history present themselves.  Battle fields are scattered around the world.  Children are the ones who face the battles and who will fight them.  History remains the same. 

I did not start out to write something so dark, but somehow ended traveling there. 

***************************************************************

Clara gazed across the empty fields with vacant eyes.  Her scarred and calloused hand shielded her view from the glaring midday sun.  Is this my destiny? She wondered. Is this all I will ever do?

With that thought, Clara leveled her rifle at the enemy and fired another shot.  Another one down. She wondered absently.  How many more to go?

*********************************************************************************************************

This is let-words-flow, experimentation, whatever.  I hope you will visit her site and allow yourself to experiment.  After all, experiencing, playing with words,and writing are interchangeable.

You can access Delores' site by clicking on the peaceful flowing stream with yellow flowers in the right side bar.

Nancy and the Revival

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Oh, dear God!  Please, please!  Not another one!

The end of the evening Sunday service was minutes away, the last song had been sung, and benediction given.  Nancy was in the process of racing out to the vestibule door when Pastor Harris announced, “…and then, tomorrow evening the Honorable Reverend Leo Berry will be arriving and lead us in a week-long revival…” 

Amid the Amen! and Praise God! each teenager wilted, with heads hung low.  Though telekinetic communication had never been confirmed, Nancy and the others could sense each other's thoughts, some filled with profanity, others not.

Nancy was safe from the altar pounding***, being a near-saint in the teen world.  But what about Bill, Tom, Bob, Sam, and other boys who were damned to Hell all the time?  Long, painful nights spanned across eternity for them.

Source: church food

Brother Leo Berry arrived at Pastor Harris' house just in time for one of the church’s Sisters to carry in the casserole, Jell-O salad, and dessert.  

For the Pastor Harris house, the meals would be manna from heaven, since the church paid salary next to nothing.  This required Pastor and Sister Harris to hold down jobs.  These dinners would be as a feast for the pastor's family.

Source: commons.wikimedia.org

Monday night arrived, with a shining smiling Brother Berry on the platform, rubbing his hands together.  His bald hair comb-over reflected the bare light bulbs overhead.  The seedy suit spoke of nights on the road with a trail of churches behind him.

“ARE YOU SAVED?  IF YOU WALKED OUT THAT DOOR THIS VERY NIGHT AND WERE SMASHED BY A PICK-UP TRUCK, WOULD YOU BE SAVED?”  

He eyed the ones who did not say Hallelujah or Preach it!  "Would you?”  He whispered meaningfully, staring down the teen herd in the back of the sanctuary.

Nancy sighed, opening her math book, this was gonna be a loooonnngg week.

***To be continued someday next week, probably Wednesday.  Pray for Nancy and all those boys.

A previous blog about Nancy and this church can be accessed here.

At the Witching Hour

This is a blog post done some time ago, after 2010 fire in the San Diego area.  Then nine fire fighters were killed. Today, we hope and pray that people are safe, while homes are not. The photos are from just days ago.

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Sunburnt Sun

Gray and pink...

Wisp to Wild

Grasping, consuming.

Swirl upward--

A gift to fires

of all fires.

Source: NPR news

Witch Creek,

Poinsettia,

Carlsbad, 

Cedar,

San Marcos,

Elfin Forest, 

Mount Palomar...

Coco..

Other battles without names.

Source: Huffington Post

Burn to the ocean

or Stop at the crest?

Fiery tongues lick cold

Impassive walls.

Left empty and deserted,

Waiting for the end.

Homes and trees

To rest, layer upon layer.

White and Gray.

Green life, now absent,

Source: Ayla87

Becomes moonscape

in moments, in hours.

Source: UT San Diego

All for 

A Sunburnt Sun,

Fire at its witching hour.

Source: No. No. No. Not without a fight.

Roaring to the Sea

From my front door during the day....

Listening as other smoke-grimed firefighters, Jen was struck with sheer immensity of this wildfire. 

From my front door at dusk...

Grim revelations of how many other sites weighed heavily on them all, but for Jen, this was her first fire.

They hacked and climbed through brush, always watching the indigo smoke billow in the sky.  Her team all knew that somewhere, a sparrow-sized flicker of flame had burst into this monster.

From my front door at night....

The searing conflagration roared toward the sea in a rapture of destruction and devastation.  

Over the hill where the fires sweep...

Jen shoveled without pause.

Thanks go to Delores at Under the Porch Light for providing six challenging words each Wednesday as a challenge.  The bold underlined words above show her wide scope when it comes to words. You should check out her A to Z Challenge where each day, Delores would provide an extremely obscure word.

Please go to her site by clicking on the stream in the right sidebar.

Note:  My camera and I have not melded yet, so these photos are grainy.  Our house is safe.  Others are not.  

The thought processes of a toddler

Can you put these photos in order?  Can you write a script for this?  I bet you can. 

#2

#1

#4

#3

#5

What did you write?  List it below in the comments!

Roses into Darkness

The Garden in April 2014 

Gary pulled rough work gloves, enjoying smells of dirt from previous gardening ventures.  Between Gary and Kelly, the roses had been pruned, now bursting in color.  Gary reveled in scented beauty.

Oranges by June, Gary smiled.  Kelly will love that.

But, last week’s wind storm had almost destroyed the lemon tree.  Dang!  If only I had cut off some branches, or picked off older lemons…then…I

Pain burst in his head.  Behind his eyes an aura obliterated the roses.  Star bursts, quavering lines.

Source: sailinjohn

Gary crawled inside, calling  “Kelly!”

 Sadly, Kelly guided Gary. Another dark room day.

Wednesday Words: Nigeria Kidnappers

Source: The School

When the zealous Islamic militants attacked her school with frenzied shouts and gun fire, the school girls tried to run and hide in the bush.  One masked man scooped Teeka and tossed her over his shoulder, as he yelled orders to the other men.

All the screaming girls were forced into box trucks, beaten with gun stocks.  Crammed and cramped, Teeka and her school mates were crying and beating against the metal walls.  No!  No!  Let us go!  You have no…

Source

Teeka had always been the meek and quiet girl of her class, more of an inchworm, one who would gladly go unnoticed.  But now?  Teeka summoned all her strength and became a gladiator, taking charge.

Be quiet! She demanded.  We must plan and think, not weep and beg.  This…With steely determination, she finished, these animals will not have weak and sobbing cowards!

Teeka had no way of knowing that she herself was considered as an investment. For a few dollars she would be sold, either as a slave or in a forced marriage.  But, she would not go easily.

Boko Haram: the group leader

Many thanks to Delores   for providing random words (the bold, underlined above) for participating bloggers to use and created a flash fiction, poem, prose, etc.   Please click on the photo of a stream on the right sidebar to read the work of other writers.  And please join the group!

...And pray for these girls to be returned to their homes.  May their captors receive the justice they so richly deserve.

Reflections on the A to Z 2014 Challenge--Huzzah!

The Parade

Well, it’s not really over.  For a blogger, the parade never really ends.  It just changes directions.

I have developed some reflections about this year’s A to Z 2014 Challenge.

This year I vowed that I would:

 Keep track of the sites I visited, write the numbers down, note sites which were ones I would follow.

Curse a bit when finding ones that were inactive.

Say “Really??” upon finding sites that were trying to sell a product.

Hit the keys with disgust, after reading ones that were downright vulgar and thoughtless.

Doze off with ones that were like reading small tomes.

Shake my head at ones that were hoping for beta readers and editing help right then and there.

Sigh with pleasure and delight when finding ones who truly expressed a cohesive thought with simplicity and well-chosen words.

With all that said, I would like to appreciate: 

the bloggers who kept their posts brief and interesting.

  

The writers who focused on the message to be conveyed.

  

The writers who knew that run-on paragraphs would put the reader to sleep.

  

The writers who understood and understand the craft of writing.

Just a few of "My newly-acquired: boy-I-want-to-follow-these" are:  

The Shellshank Redemption

D.G. Hudson

Jilda Watson

Writer's Storm: Brandon Ax

Melanie Schulz

Loverofwords

Not enough words can appreciate gratitude for the organizers and on-call super bloggers who either designed, oversaw, and/or monitored the 2,000+ participants.  These people are (with hopes that none were excluded, but pretty sure there are...so sorry):

Arlee Bird

Ninja Captain Alex J. Cavanaugh

Stephen Tremp, Author

Tina  

Amyanti 

Jeremy @ Being Retro

Heather M. Gardner

M.J. Joachim's Writing's Tips

Heather M. Gardner

See you 'round the corner!  

Huzzah!

Some may wonder why I use color for words.  Teacher trick.  Helps students track sentences.  Also I love color.

Why "huzzah"?  I like the word.  My apologies for the length of this post.

Good ol' high school band on parade

When the Phone Rings....

Who knew phones would be so irritating?

A phone call usually changes the plans of the day or just annoys Bill.  Solar energy? no.  Credit card offers? no.  Pick up the grandkids after school?  You betcha.  Meet the guys at McDonalds?  I'll get the keys.

When his doctor's nurse has called about results from recent tests, Bill has never been surprised.  Once a year, do the lab tests.  It is a check-mark in the yearly To-Do Lists.  Go on with day-to-day until the course makes a change.

The phone rang.  The doctor's nurse, and her voice was hesitant.  

Something was found.  Referral for further tests.  Will call you with the appointment.....

Damn phone.‎

Thursday, ‎20 ‎March, ‎2014

Wednesday Words: Jack

Jack raced away from the fizzling and foaming of a chemical bomb lobbed at his fellow troopers, sending them scattering in different directions.

He vaulted over a ragged fencing into a barren field, harboring a blister of hope that his comrades were alive. The riptide of emotions swept over him, just as he heard a “crunch” beneath his left foot.

Oh, please God!  No! He whispered.

The land mine was pressure activated and always fatal.  Jack’s mind raced through the possibilities and what equipment he possessed.

Please, Jesus, make this work…If not, I’ll be kneeling at Your Feet…

Jack fired a grappling hook to the nearest tree and pushed the automatic retract button.  It pulled him up and out as the IED exploded.  He saw and heard the blast, but from the safety of the tree.

With drops of blood splattered on his uniform, Jack knew he had some injuries, but was saved, and had been in many ways.

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Delores from http://ramblingsoftheterminallyaging.blogspot.com  faithfully lists 6 challenging words each week.  This week This post shows the word as underlined words.  Please click on the delightful photo of a running creek in the right sidebar to access other participants.  It will be well worthwhile.