Friday Fictioneers 5-1-20

It is time for Friday Fictioneers for the week.

This is the challenge where flash fiction writers create a 100 word story from a prompt supplied by Rochelle our hostess. Check it out by clicking the link above.

Here is the prompt and my story:

PHOTO PROMPT © Dale Rogerson

Lost In White

by J. Lillie

Hugh stood with his mother and his mother-in-law in the empty dining room. It was the first day they were actually related and it was the last.

“I blame you.” His mother-in-law said.

“You have got to be kidding!” Hugh’s mother spat out, “Hugh was the one your daughter left at the altar.”

Hugh looked back at the toile-draped arbor, then out through the snow covered windows into the complete white out of the setting night. He didn’t care whose fault it was. He just hoped Karen was OK. Even as that hope dawned, he knew it was false.

Share Your World From 4-27-20

Well, It is almost the end of the Sharing week but here I am at last to SHARE MY WORLD WITH ALL OF YOU!

This is the challenge where our hostess, Melanie, asks us 5 questions and in answering them we, her contributors, share our worlds. When you have finished reading my shares, please check out Melanie’s site, by clicking the link above, to see how she and all of our other Sharing friends have answered.

Now on to the questions:

SHAREYOURWORLDSTARHANDS

Do guns protect people or kill people?  Or both?

Guns are tools, inanimate objects. They can neither protect nor kill. Now people…people…. How I long for a return to innocence where killing and protecting were not things we did or ever had to do.

Is it more important to be respected or liked?

I think it depends who you are trying to get to respect or like you. I have wasted a lot of time trying to get certain people to treat me in ways they had no capacity for. I have discovered that “like” and “respect” are beggars wishes. Even if you get them you can’t long keep them.

Is having a big ego a negative or  positive trait?  (yeah I know.  Duh. But there ought to be one “gimme’ in the pile)

Oye. We could do with a little less ego in the world right now.

Depending on your point of view, is death a new beginning? 

Yes. In fact, aside from the second coming it is the real beginning.

FINALLY:

gratitudeleaf

I am so grateful to have a garden to work in.



And That Is Time

Time is my boy,

Tumbling on the mats

At the YMCA into

Manhood.

A Cycle

Of hands over legs, feet over fists,

A fumble of again and

Again in

A drunken stumble,

Never straight line

Into the future.

That was yesterday’s fall, failure/success

Depending on who you ask.

Into the yawning maw of unknowing,

The fete’ accomplis

Is generally knowing how

The cookie crumbles

When the acrobat crushes it in his stride.

Take the crumbs and put them

In my cup.

And that is time.

Mid Afternoon Meditation 5-2-20

My heart, O God, is steadfast;
    I will sing and make music with all my soul.
Awake, harp and lyre!
    I will awaken the dawn.
I will praise you, Lord, among the nations;
    I will sing of you among the peoples.
For great is your love, higher than the heavens;
    your faithfulness reaches to the skies.
Be exalted, O God, above the heavens;
    let your glory be over all the earth.

Save us and help us with your right hand,
    that those you love may be delivered.
God has spoken from his sanctuary:
    “In triumph I will parcel out Shechem
    and measure off the Valley of Sukkoth.
Gilead is mine, Manasseh is mine;
    Ephraim is my helmet,
    Judah is my scepter.
Moab is my washbasin,
    on Edom I toss my sandal;
    over Philistia I shout in triumph.”

10 Who will bring me to the fortified city?
    Who will lead me to Edom?
11 Is it not you, God, you who have rejected us
    and no longer go out with our armies?
12 Give us aid against the enemy,
    for human help is worthless.
13 With God we will gain the victory,
    and he will trample down our enemies. Psalm 108

What is a steadfast heart?

2020 Home Photo Challenge 5-2-20

THIS YEAR I AM GIVING MYSELF A CHALLENGE! ONE PHOTO EVERYDAY TAKEN FROM MY HOME. IF YOU WANT TO JOIN JUST TAKE A PHOTO IN OR AROUND YOUR HOME AND WRITE YOUR OWN BLOG AND POST THE LINK IN THE COMMENTS SECTION BELOW IT.

It seems that I forgot to post yesterday! How did I lose a whole day? It must be the shut-in! 🙂

Anyway…. here is today’s project at The Vicarage.

A load of garden soil.

Some pots for the gardens.

The second raised bed is ready to be turned.

Morning Direction From Scripture 5-2-20

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
    his love endures forever.

Let the redeemed of the Lord tell their story—
    those he redeemed from the hand of the foe,
those he gathered from the lands,
    from east and west, from north and south.[a]

Some wandered in desert wastelands,
    finding no way to a city where they could settle.
They were hungry and thirsty,
    and their lives ebbed away.
Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble,
    and he delivered them from their distress.
He led them by a straight way
    to a city where they could settle.
Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love
    and his wonderful deeds for mankind,
for he satisfies the thirsty
    and fills the hungry with good things.

10 Some sat in darkness, in utter darkness,
    prisoners suffering in iron chains,
11 because they rebelled against God’s commands
    and despised the plans of the Most High.
12 So he subjected them to bitter labor;
    they stumbled, and there was no one to help.
13 Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble,
    and he saved them from their distress.
14 He brought them out of darkness, the utter darkness,
    and broke away their chains.
15 Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love
    and his wonderful deeds for mankind,
16 for he breaks down gates of bronze
    and cuts through bars of iron.

17 Some became fools through their rebellious ways
    and suffered affliction because of their iniquities.
18 They loathed all food
    and drew near the gates of death.
19 Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble,
    and he saved them from their distress.
20 He sent out his word and healed them;
    he rescued them from the grave.
21 Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love
    and his wonderful deeds for mankind.
22 Let them sacrifice thank offerings
    and tell of his works with songs of joy.

23 Some went out on the sea in ships;
    they were merchants on the mighty waters.
24 They saw the works of the Lord,
    his wonderful deeds in the deep.
25 For he spoke and stirred up a tempest
    that lifted high the waves.
26 They mounted up to the heavens and went down to the depths;
    in their peril their courage melted away.
27 They reeled and staggered like drunkards;
    they were at their wits’ end.
28 Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble,
    and he brought them out of their distress.
29 He stilled the storm to a whisper;
    the waves of the sea[b] were hushed.
30 They were glad when it grew calm,
    and he guided them to their desired haven.
31 Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love
    and his wonderful deeds for mankind.
32 Let them exalt him in the assembly of the people
    and praise him in the council of the elders.

33 He turned rivers into a desert,
    flowing springs into thirsty ground,
34 and fruitful land into a salt waste,
    because of the wickedness of those who lived there.
35 He turned the desert into pools of water
    and the parched ground into flowing springs;
36 there he brought the hungry to live,
    and they founded a city where they could settle.
37 They sowed fields and planted vineyards
    that yielded a fruitful harvest;
38 he blessed them, and their numbers greatly increased,
    and he did not let their herds diminish.

39 Then their numbers decreased, and they were humbled
    by oppression, calamity and sorrow;
40 he who pours contempt on nobles
    made them wander in a trackless waste.
41 But he lifted the needy out of their affliction
    and increased their families like flocks.
42 The upright see and rejoice,
    but all the wicked shut their mouths.

43 Let the one who is wise heed these things
    and ponder the loving deeds of the Lord. Psalm 107

What happens to the righteous in a nation under God’s judgment?