In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “The Transporter.”
The Daily Post has asked us to…Tell about a sensation — a taste, a smell, a piece of music — that transports you back to childhood.
As a child I spent nearly every Friday night at my grandmother’s house on Packard’s Pond in Orange MA. The house was a converted camp resting in the shadow of Tully Mountain. My grandparents had settled there as they neared retirement. It was all pine trees and mountain air.
On Friday nights my father would take me and my sister over to a ham dinner and then on Saturday my grandmother would wash clothes and do the grocery shopping around Saturday morning cartoons (my shows) and Saturday afternoon bowling (my grandfather’s shows). She often threw open all the windows on Saturday (except in the dead of winter) to air the camp out.
To this day the scent of a pine candle (the smell of the lake air), the smell of cilantro (the scent of clean laundry) or the fragrance of cloves (a cooking ham dinner) drive me back to the days of my boyhood.
Tag Archives: Daily Prompt
No Thanks Gatlinburg!
In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “No, Thanks.”
The Daily Post has asked us…Is there a place in the world you never want to visit? Where, and why not?
I guess it is not that I never wanted to visit Gatlinburg. In fact I wanted to and did visit this spot tucked away in the Smoky Mountains. It’s a place I never want to visit again!
We arrived on a Tuesday and were slated to visit until Thursday. The hotel we were in offered a suite. It backed up onto the mountain and as we tracked around to the mountain- side of the building where our room was, the mountain itself imposed such a shadow that we lost all the light even though it was midday. Walking across the second story porch to our room was possible only because the night lights were on 24/7. That was creepy enough but when we saw the cardboard sign tacked to the railing that read “Don’t feed the bars.” written in black magic marker, we realized we had left civilization completely behind.
Our room smelled like hornet spray. Dried spaghetti stuck to the walls in the kitchenette, and when I went to wash the dust of the road off I discovered the shower curtain was filled with cigarette burns. Good golly! How addicted does a person have to be to smoke in the shower?!?
We opened the TV console for the kids but the TV was gone. Somebody had put it in the fireplace behind the decorative grate. I ask you why? Why would someone do that?
Needless to say we did not stay the two nights. When I checked out the next morning the lady managing the front desk had a giant wolf-dog with her at the counter. I had to step over the creature to cancel my reservation for the night. I thought I might lose my leg as I stepped back over the dog to leave the building.
My wife and I thought we might redeem the mini vaca by taking a gondola ride up the side of the mountain. But pine beetles had infested the forest leading up to the skating rink at the summit called Oberammergau. Our trip up the mountain consisted of lots of scenery of dead pine trees and $7.00 hamburgers at the top.
Maybe it was just a perfect storm of bad luck. But seriously once is enough for me!
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An Offer I Couldn’t Refuse
In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “Race the Clock.”
So the daily post has given us this assignment today…
Here’s the title of your post: “An Offer I Couldn’t Refuse.”
Set a timer for ten minutes, and write it. Go!
Several years ago I was asked to come and sing for a group of people at a local visiting nurses dayhab unit. I went and sang.
They liked me and so they invited me back. They liked me the second time and so they asked me if I would begin coming once a month. I agreed and went to sing hymns on a monthly basis and did this for two years.
Over the course of those two years my schedule began to fill out exponentially. It was becoming harder and harder to keep the commitment to my monthly hymn-sing at the VNA and so I approached God about it.
“God you know how busy I am.” I complained, “This hymn-sing is nice but I am not seeing any real fruit from it and I just can’t justify continuing when there are so many other more productive pursuits I could be involved in. God I am going to quit after this next concert. But if you want me to stay you will have to do something to make me stay.”
I went to the concert, set up my piano and sang my heart out feeling fully liberated that at the end of the day I would be handing in my walking papers.
We were about three-quarters of the way through my set when suddenly one of the elderly ladies in the room stopped the concert and asked, “Hey you are a pastor right?”
“Yes I am. ” I replied (they had been calling me Pastor J since day one but God chose this day to make it all sink in).
“You know most of us in this room don’t get to go to church anymore.” She said. “Would it be possible for you to bring us communion?”
The activities director blanched a little. But I had to ask, “Is that possible?”
I fully expected an unequivocal “No!”
What I got from her was a, “Let’s vote.”
The vote was taken and everybody wanted communion.
It was an offer I could not refuse. I had my next marching orders from God. Today I have a team of three which brings communion to 35 individuals at this venue. We started another off-campus service with another team two towns away and last month two of us started bringing music to a third day program two miles up the road from the VNA where it all started.
You never know where fruit from ministry is going to pop up!
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My Week In Song
In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “Playlist of the Week.”
Check out how others sang their way through the week by clicking above.
SUNDAY
TUESDAY
WEDNESDAY AND THURSDAY
FRIDAY
TODAY
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All’s I’m Left With Is James
In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “Burnt.”
The Daily Post has asked Remember this prompt, when your home was on fire and you got to save five items? That means you left a lot of stuff behind. What are the things you wish you could have taken, but had to leave behind?
“You couldn’t save anything?” Melanie asked.
“Sorry Honey. Nothing.” I returned
“You couldn’t save Great Gramm’s sewing machine?”
“Nope.”
“What about the cool decorative wine bottles that belonged to Grampa Jack?”
“Not a one.” Was my reply.
” The little monk salt and pepper shakers that Gramma Lillie bought for her first apartment?”
“Sorry honey.”
“Tell me you at least saved the dining chairs for our new apartment.”
I shook my head in the negative.
“Well at least you have copies of all James’ Graduation pictures. We’ll have something to hang on our walls.” My daughter beamed
James groaned at the prospect that his own picture had now become his inheritance.
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At Least I Know James Is Safe!
In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “Burning Down the House.”
The Daily Post has asked…Your home is on fire. Grab five items (assume all people and animals are safe). What did you grab?
My son-in-law and I actually joked about this on the day of his wedding.
I awoke to the sound of the alarms going off in the hall. Thick black smoke already engulfed most of the stairway. So I kept low clutching my little dogs close to my chest. Mom and my sister were already at the doorway and headed across the porch. I handed Jacopo and Mercedes to Brenda while mom carried Snug. I tried to launch myself back through the door to save what I could from the house but the old place was a tinderbox. There was no saving anything that was inside. We were glad to escape with our lives.
It was at that moment that I was glad I had saved all my pictures and all my words to several thumb drives in several locations. I would not want to lose any of my photographs or stories. Most precious of all are the pictures I have of my son-in-law James. There are few of these and he really hates them all. A father-in-law can never have too much leverage.
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A Fireside Chat With Ben, Tom and J.S.
In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “Fireside Chat.”
The Daily Post has asked, What person whom you don’t know very well in real life — it could be a blogger whose writing you enjoy, a friend you just recently made, etc. — would you like to have over for a long chat in which they tell you their life story?
Well I had a hard time narrowing it down to one. I actually had a hard time narrowing it down to three but that’s what I did.
With four people who write or talk as part of their ministry it would probably take more than a fireside chat just for introductions. We’d probably need at least a weekend to get all the stories told maybe even longer but I would really love to get together with:
Ben Nelson from http://anotherredletterday.com/
Tom Raines from https://tomraines.wordpress.com/
and J.S. Park from http://jsparkblog.com/
to learn their faith stories. I have really enjoyed reading the uplifting blogs these men write and would love the opportunity to learn more. One thing I know if we cannot make it work this side of glory these men can feel welcome in my mansion when we get to eternity and won’t we have stories to tell then?!?
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Two Right Feet In Prayer
In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “Two Right Feet.”
The Daily Post has asked us, What are the things you need to do within 30 minutes of waking up to ensure your day gets off on the right foot? What happened the last time you didn’t do one of these things?
For me this is all about prayer and Bible Study. I am finding the older I get the more regimented I get, particularly in the spiritual disciplines. As a young guy I thought the lifestyle of discipline was stodgy. There was a part of me that thought if it wasn’t unscripted or spontaneous then it wasn’t real, but the older I become the more I see that intentionality particularly with the spiritual life is the pathway to the longevity of success.
Beginning the day with prayer and study allows me to tune my spiritual senses to the voice of God. It allows His conviction and direction to come in. When I miss my time in prayer I feel like I am in a ship with neither rudder nor paddle being driven along by every whim the river of life brings my way. So most mornings now I make the time to pray.
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The Daily Prompt: Connecting the Dots & The Blood Of the Martyrs
In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “Connect the Dots.”
The Daily post gave us this instruction today,
Open your nearest book to page 82. Take the third full sentence on the page, and work it into a post somehow.
Pg. 82 of the book nearest to me read, “As new tombs were needed the tunnel was lengthened and new chambers were excavated on both sides…
Here is a short story based on the book this was taken from, The Blood Of the Martyrs.
The House Of Worship
by JE Lillie
It had been a month since I had seen daylight. The catacombs were not just the place we buried the dead. They had become our sanctuary in every sense of the word.
The number of martyrs grew by the day. Johanan had been fed to the lions a week ago and then his wife Cybele had been burned at the stake as her children watched just two nights later. Nicanor and Lavinia had been sold as slaves in the market, confirming my mother’s decision to stay below ground with the dead.
The dead or what pieces of them could be salvaged were brought to our little family sheltering in the catacombs and we saw to their Christian burial. The hidden cemetery was filling fast so “As new tombs were needed the tunnel was lengthened and new chambers were excavated on both sides. My hands did some of the digging.
My fourteenth name day came and went while I dug away in the catacombs making a space for the newest family of martyrs. In the process we were told to make a chamber wide enough for the church to meet in.
I still remember the night we Christened that new section of tunnel. We, the soon to die, sang hymns among the dead and relished the thought of the Coliseum if only it would take us into the sun and out of the musty, dirty darkness that had become our house of worship.
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Uncle Tom and the Gift Of Tongues
The Daily Post has asked us to…Describe a memory or encounter in which you considered your faith, religion, spirituality — or lack of — for the first time.
You can see how others met this challenge at
https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/in-good-faith/
As a boy of thirteen I had an intense spiritual hunger. I suppose I had always leaned toward the spirit world. Growing up the first books I remember borrowing from the town library were stories of the Greek gods and the writings of Uri Geller and other famous psychics.
I don’t remember a time when I didn’t believe in the supernatural or in a higher power but my search for that higher power began in earnest at the end of my eighth grade year. I remember telling my mother that I thought some day I would become a minister. She scoffed at the idea because at that point no one in our immediate family even really believed in the biblical God. My grandparents were believers but they didn’t wear their religion on their sleeves or anything like that and their pastor at the time was more in tune with Universalism than Christianity.
I met a girl in school whose family members were committed Jehovah’s Witnesses and she began witnessing. Through a series of events my parents found out and insisted that if I was really interested in church then I was going to go with my Uncle Tom. They thought he was crazy but at least they knew he was harmless and crazy.
So began my journey into the Christian faith and away from the neo-paganism I had known. The story is long and convoluted but suffice it to say the first time I heard someone deliver a message in tongues and another person give the interpretation, I was hooked. Uncle Tom and the gift of tongues showed me the way to a real personal and supernatural relationship with God through Jesus Christ. God can and will use anything to bring a seeking soul to Himself.
Lillie-Put 
