Category: From the heart

Do I see whom I want to see in the mirror?

Rory asks;

Do you see who you wish to see when you look in the mirror?

The answer to Rory’s question would have been different 10 years ago.

10 years ago I was still trying to be a different person from who I really was.

The last decade was a time of change and it also taught me a lot of valuable lessons.

I won’t go into the details of the upheaval that we faced as a family, but it did put things into proper perspective for me.

• Appearances are not important, health is.

• Circumstances can change in a short while turning your world upside down.

• Don’t take anything for granted.

• Appreciate each and every blessing.

• Family comes first.

• When you face difficult situations, God also gives you strength to face them.

So now when I look in the mirror, I see a woman almost 60, not looking too bad for her age, (perhaps could do with some weight loss), in reasonable health, active, and at ease with herself and the world around her. I like this woman that I see in the mirror because she has learned to accept life as it is and lives in the now. She is now a realist with her faith firmly grounding her existence.

So yes, to answer Rory’s question, I am satisfied with the person I see in the mirror. She is who I wish to be.

#Keepitalive

#RoryAsks

Reena’s Xploration Challenge – Word play – Anguish

Reena is the host of RXC

PROMPT #202

Let’s play around with words a little today. Yeah, we do it everyday, but let this word play be a word game.

Unforgettable

One can extract forget, table or able from this word.

I give you three more

  1. Languish
  2. Shipwreck
  3. Customer

You can even change the order of alphabets  (like ‘peck’ from shipwreck, or ‘route’ from customer).

Choose any one of the four options given above.

  • Mention the original word and your derived word.
  • Use it in the piece you write.
  • Publish on your blog.
  • Copy paste the link in Comments here

Wait for the engagement to happen

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I choose; Languish

My word; Anguish

Anguish

A sharp pain I felt

Like a dagger plunged

Deep into my heart

The anguish, the agony unbearable

I teetered, held out my hand for support

It met empty air………


There was no one there

To hold my hand, to console

This aloneness has taught me a lot

A valuable lesson to rely

Only on myself and myself alone

The pain still hurts sometimes

But the anguish has died down

My courage has lulled it to sleep

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#Keepitalive

#RXC

Tale Weaver – In the Dark

Stephanie Colpron is the host of Tale Weaver

Hello everyone and welcome to this week’s Tale Weaver. 

A late post as I had to bring my son to his follow-up for his broken wrist. Everything seems to be healing nicely.

We rely on our senses so heavily on a daily basis. Like sight. 

So for today’s tale, I’d like you to write a story where a character has no sense of sight, or has lost it. Or maybe how it would feel to you if you did become blind. I’ve got spectacles myself but even though I can’t see too well without I’m not blind… so yes a story on a loss of senses, or the reclaiming of it… Your choice.

In summary

  • Go where the prompt takes you and have fun!
  • Prose, poetry, fable… please share your stories in whatever style works for you.
  • Keep your stories/quests/tales below 1000 words
  • Post it on your blog and tag it MLMM, Tale Weaver, Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie
  • Be sure to leave a pingback or a link so we (I) can read your contribution

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We take many things for granted! Sight is one of the senses that we rely heavily upon and think that we have this amazing ability for life.

But life throws many unexpected challenges our way. Recently, I had some trouble seeing clearly from my left eye and blamed it on the fact that after my cataract surgery, the lens capsule had a bit of calcification on it. I thought after a quick laser treatment, It would be back to normal.

But it didn’t. It needed more investigation.

After a detailed exam of my retina, I was diagnosed with age-related macular degeneration. This is unsettling and worrying! I have an elderly maternal aunt who has almost lost sight of both eyes due to this disease.

Suddenly, I have learned to value my sight much more because I don’t know the prognosis of this disease. I am going to get another opinion about it and I hope that this doctor would give me some good news because the possibility of losing my sight is a frightening one.

At the same time, I realize how brave are those people who have always lived without this gift. I appreciate their courage very much.

PS; I saw the ophthalmologist today and she reassured me that things aren’t dire, as yet. I just need to keep an eye( pun not intended) on things and get regular check-ups. ( Relief 😅)

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#Keepitalive

#TaleWeaver

Eugi’s Weekly Prompt – Peace

Eugenia is the host of Eugi’s Weekly Prompt

“As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives.” – Henry David Thoreau

Your Weekly Prompt – Peace – September 30, 2

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We pay homage to the dove of peace

We weave accolades of praise and courage

Yet the real peace is as elusive as ever

Only lip service and hollow words are offered

It seems we lack the will to bring about real peace

World is still at loggerheads with itself everywhere

People are against people, even their own kind

When will it get through our thick heads that

There cannot be peace within if there’s no peace around us

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#Keepitalive

#EugisCauserie

Photo Challenge # 383 – Fragile

Weejars is the host of Photo Challenge

Photo credit Angela Kelly

Use the above image as inspiration for a poem or short story.

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We think that we have a strong grasp on the reins of life

In reality it is a fragile, temporary relationship

In one moment, things can turn topsy turvy

Leaving us flabbergasted and shaken to the core

Don’t take anything in life for granted

Take each moment as a bonus to savor and enjoy

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#Keepitalive

#PhotoChallenge

Weekly Prompts Weekend Challenge – Memorable Day

Sue W and GC are the hosts of Weekly Prompts

“Sometimes you will never know the true value of a moment until it becomes a memory.” ~ Unknown.

Weekend Challenge Memorable Day from Sue W and GC.

This week partner GC and I ask you to share images or tell us about a memorable day.

How you choose to translate the challenge is entirely up to you, loosely connected or strictly to the letter – Words, Pictures, Poetry or Rhyme. 

Please tag Weekly Prompts Weekend Challenge.

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There are so many memories that have lived in my mind for a long time. Some are really wonderful ones and others are terribly sad ones. Both types of memories are to be cherished as these events made me who I am.

Some of my happy memories are ;

• The day I got married

• Birth of my three kids

• The milestones of my children

• Birth of my three grandchildren

• The day I started my blog

• Finally coming home after spending 5 years in America ( off and on)

My sad memories are centered on the death of my mother when I was 6 and that of my father’s passing away when I was 43. These events were very painful but I learned a lot from them too.

If our lives were just filled with happiness, we would never know its value. I learned that to feel happy, we need to feel sadness as well. I am a product of my good and sad memories.

Memories are the way where we relive those days. If our memories are colored with a feeling of gratitude, we become richer and wiser because of them. If we look at our memories with regret and wistfulness, we lose a bit of our present to them.

Make your memorable days a source of everlasting gratitude.

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#Keepitalive

#WeeklyPrompts

Thursday Inspiration- Heart

Jim is the host of Thursday Inspiration

Respond to this challenge, by either by using the prompt word heart, or going with the above picture, or by means of the song ‘One Love

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Many of us suffer from this conflict. There is a huge gap between our public persona and our inner self. I’ve explored this in my poem below.

I have a big heart

I don’t flinch when people hurt me

I bear their insults without lashing back



This is what I like to show others

While inside my heart breaks into a million pieces

I feel the hurt but keep smiling to cover it




Sometimes I feel like a hypocrite

But I console myself with this thought that

Acting magnanimous gives me an advantage


My heart may feel the hurt but I’m not the one inflicting it!

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#Keepitalive

#ThursdayInspiration

Throw back Thursday # 2 – Sentimental pictures

Lauren and Maggie are our hosts for this prompt.

Welcome to the second edition of the Throwback Thursday Memory BlogHop where we take on a nostalgic object, event, or memory and blog about it. It’s Thursday, and I shall be providing the topic. I will alternate hosting with Maggie from From Cave Walls We will post a blog with the title Throwback Thursday – subject of the week. You can use the photo above in your post and tag it with #TBTMemory or #IRememberWhen to make it easier for others to find.

Today’s subject: Sentimental Pictures What pictures were you gifted? Did you ask for them or was the gift a surprise? What did you decide to do with the pictures? Did you give them to other family members? If you were not gifted pictures, were you given other sentimental items? Do you have any items you want passed down to family or friends? Have you already let them know what you will be giving them?

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As I have mentioned in my blog previously, my mother passed away when I was almost 6. I never knew what sort of person she was. My father remarried when I was 9, and due to the presence of my stepmother in our family, we never discussed my real mother at all.

So it was a lovely surprise when a few years ago my maternal uncle, my mom’s younger brother passed on to me, a few photographs of my mom as a child and a letter she wrote to my grandmother, a few months before she died. I have very few memories of her and remember nothing of significance about her. These photos are of great sentimental value to me.

I cannot share the photos here but they show her as a child of perhaps 10 or 12, riding a bike with her younger brother sitting behind her. Then there is one which is a formal photo, and all the siblings are dressed very properly, sitting down for their photo to be taken.

The letter she wrote to her mom was about an upcoming wedding in the family and the clothes she wanted made for herself and me. That wedding happened two years after her death and I vaguely remember it.

This prompt brought back happy memories of my mother. Thanks Lauren and Maggie for giving me the opportunity to visit the past.

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#Keepitalive

#TBTMemory

Reena’s Xploration Challenge- Stranger in the mirror.

Reena is the host of Reena’s Xploration Challenge

Welcome back!

PROMPT #196

The person I see in the mirror is not me. It hurts that I’ve lived with this stranger for so long.

Use the sentence above, or the spirit of it in your piece.

The first thing we usually see in the morning is our face in the bathroom mirror. I’m so used to looking at my face that I seldom pay much attention unless there’s something different about me. That is when I am not paying much attention to what lies beneath the surface.

But there are days when I feel the person I see in the mirror is not the real me. I feel that I’ve lived with this stranger for so long, and have not been totally fair to her.

I smile at myself sometimes to see how I look while smiling at others. I make faces to see how my different expressions look. But what I cannot do is to open my heart so that others can see what I feel. How I absorb all the hurt I feel without letting it show on my face. How I smile when my heart is heavy with unshed tears.

These feelings never come to the surface because I feel that whatever happens, I need to present a cheerful front to those around me, especially my loved ones. In trying to appear happy, I do sometimes in reality start to feel happy and that is perhaps the power of suggestion. Look happy and you’ll start feeling happy.

Being true to oneself is indeed a gift that few of us bestow on ourselves. We often suppress our inner emotions and put on a false facade. I don’t mean to say that we should wear our emotions on our sleeves, all the time and for everyone to see, but we should let people know when they hurt us by telling them gently that it hurt us.

Let’s hope that when we next look in the mirror, we see someone who has been treated fairly.

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#Keepitalive

#RXC

Weekly Prompts Weekend Challenge – Sanctuary

Sue W and GC are the hosts of Weekly Prompts

“Within you, there is a stillness and sanctuary to which you can retreat at any time and be yourself.” ~ Hermann Hesse.

This week the Weekend Challenge from partner GC and me is Sanctuary.

Humans provided rescue centres that became sanctuaries for wildlife and abandoned pets, but what you, where is your sanctuary – your retreat, your refuge and place of peace and quiet. 

How you choose to translate the challenge is entirely up to you – Words, Pictures, Poetry or Rhyme. 

Please tag Weekly Prompts Weekend Challenge.

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Mother!

If only………….

You were with me today, I would

Rest my head in your lap and share my troubles with you

You were my safe haven, my sanctuary in the storm

With you, I felt safe from all that was threatening me

By your side I felt that no harm will come to me

My trust in you was unwavering, unshakable

If only……….

You were with me today

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#Keepitalive

#WeeklyPrompts