Tag: dailyprompt

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All I Want For Christmas…

Daily writing prompt
What is the greatest gift someone could give you?
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This is a tough question for me to answer. My mom bemoans the fact that she can no longer afford to buy me gifts, but that doesn’t bother me. I get very few gifts any more, and that’s fine, because I’m trying to downsize and gifts would just clutter up my already messy space.

A co-worker gave me a wonderful gift right before Christmas–a plateful of fudge and peanut brittle exactly the way my mom used to make it. I get nostalgic this time of year for the candy and baked goods that were so much a part of my family’s Christmas tradition. I don’t have the recipes–not that I could make peanut brittle anyway–and my mom is in assisted living, so she know longer makes any of those goods.

But the greatest gifts I’m getting these days are words of wisdom. So much of that comes from my blogging buddies, and I thank you for those thoughts. You may not be aware of the good that comes from sharing your life experience, but it’s there.

Then there are the gifts God gives us, sometimes in small measure, sometimes larger. This morning in church I was overwhelmed with the idea that I was created in the image of God, that God created me to be who I am. More than that, I felt a conviction that my parents were chosen for me, faults and all. I struggle with so much pain from my childhood and even my relationship with my parents as an adult, but perhaps that was all part of God’s plan for me. That’s pretty basic stuff for a lot of people of faith, and it’s not a new thought for me, but there was a wave of conviction I haven’t felt before.

I attend an Episcopal church, and I’m fortunate to have a priest who emphasizes God’s profound love for us despite our failings. We can fall again and again and God simply doesn’t go away. I find myself failing, but I know there is hope for the future.

I guess that’s the greatest gift anyone can give me, unwavering love despite my worst behavior.

Image Credits: Peace on Earth © cartoon-IT–stock.adobe.com; Fudge © olyina–stock.adobe.com; Family © GarkushaArt–stock.adobe.com

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New School, New Friends

Daily writing prompt
Tell us about your first day at something — school, work, as a parent, etc.
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I was shaking on my first day of sixth grade. We’d recently moved from a larger city to a small, unincorporated area in the mountains, with a school that spanned kindergarten to eighth grade. I knew no one at the new school.

Unlike most of the junior highs at that time, sixth-eighth grade were together. Not in the classroom, there were enough of us to have separate classroom for each grade, but we shared everything from lunch times to teachers, rotating classrooms for each subject. Common enough now, but certainly not then. I was particularly frightened of the eighth-graders. What if they beat me up?

I didn’t know what to wear to fit in. Until recently, girls had been required to wear dresses to school. Now we could wear jeans, much more suitable for the mountain area. To be honest, I don’t remember what I wore, I just remember agonizing over it. I’m not even sure I had jeans at that point. My mom had made all my clothes, including my pants. I’m quite sure I didn’t wear homemade pants on my first day of school.

My mom didn’t make me take the bus that first day, something for which I was very grateful. She drove me to school and together we found the playground, where kids hung out before school started. After she left, I pressed up against the brick building and hung my head.

Much to my shock, two girls approached me. “Are you new?” one of them asked in a welcoming manner. I nodded my head yes. “What grade are you in?” When I told them sixth grade, they gleefully said, “We are, too!” Since there was only one sixth grade class that year, we would be together. They proceeded to show me around the playground, giving me vital information such as where the bathrooms were.

Those two girls, Sue and Lisa, would remain my friends through high school. After that we drifted apart, and I’ve kept up with very few of my high school friends, so I don’t know where they ended up or how their lives are today. I hope things are good for them. Sue’s mom died in a plane crash shortly before seventh grade, and her dad remarried not long after. I suspect now that things were difficult for her through all those years, but I didn’t know enough to lend my support. I feel bad about that now.

Sixth, seventh, eighth grade. High school. Tough ages for all of us. But I had friends, and that made all the difference.

Image Credits: School Children (header)–© stock.adobe.com, Jeans © GOOKKIK–stock.adobe.com, Happy Kids Jumping © Bigstock Photos

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What Do I Value Most?

Daily writing prompt
What would you do if you lost all your possessions?
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This is something I’ve thought about a lot. I have fears of several types of disasters, and the two that scare me the most are fires and tornadoes. In both, I not only could lose all my possessions, I could lose my cats. I’d be heartbroken over that.

I think about the things that would disappear out of my life and do what I can to minimize some of the losses. I have a safe deposit box for all my jewelry (“all” being a misleading word–I don’t have much, but what I have, I value). I got that when I thought about what would happen to a favorite ring of mine in a fire. It’s gold, and would likely melt. Since there was something I could do to prevent that, I did it. Now my jewelry sits there and I never wear it. Not that have occasion to anyway.

I’ve been working on a novel, and I save every chapter in the Microsoft cloud. I’m trusting that it’s safe there and no one could hack in, but the reality is, my novel needs so much work a stranger probably couldn’t do anything with anyway.

But those are the things that are relatively safe from disaster. What if all the hand knit items I’ve made over the years were suddenly gone? I’ve had to give some of them away because I don’t have room for them, but there’s still plenty I’ve hung on to. I have some beautiful shawls that I actually use, a few timeless sweaters I still wear, and that sort of thing. And all my knitting books and patterns! Okay, I’ve trimmed that collection down quite a bit, but I particularly treasure what I have.

Yes, I have renter’s insurance, which would buy me some new furniture, dishes, and clothes. But it wouldn’t replace the Snoopy mug I got when I sixteen or the handmade cards a friend has given me.

So what would I do if I lost all my possessions? You can bet I’d cry some. But if my cats were safe and I was safe, I guess I’d find a way to rebuild. Looking around now at all the things I own, such as the book of poetry my great-grandfather gave my great-grandmother on their wedding day and the Christmas ornaments friends have given me over the years, I know I can’t keep them all safe.

So I need to value what I have while I have it. But these are treasures that will eventually fall into ruin one day anyway. Who knows what will end up in a landfill when I die. I need to build up treasures for eternity. I can lose all my possessions, but I cannot lose the love of God.

Image Credits: Teddy Bear © VK Studio; Tornado © Breck; Typewriter © OneLineStock–all, stock.adobe.com

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No Computer? I Remember It Well.

Daily writing prompt
Your life without a computer: what does it look like?
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Well, like so many of us, I’ve become dependent on my computer and phone (or mobile device, as they accurately say in some countries). But I lived the first half of my life without a computer, so I know exactly what my life would look like. I’m including cell phones in this post. They’re as much a part of my “computer life” as my laptop is.

Okay, without a phone, you didn’t leave home without change for a phone call. Or money for a cab, if you were on a date and were concerned he might not be the gentleman he appeared to be. For a long time, that call was just a dime. Then it became a quarter–then I’m not sure where it went. It got expensive.

Before there were cell phones, you may have had voice mail, or you may have relied on an answering machine. The latter was a great way to screen calls since it had the caller’s name on it, unless they blocked the number. Can you even block number on a cell phone? I’ve never really looked into it. The other nice thing about answering machines is you could hear your message and pick up the phone if it was someone you wanted to talk to.

But before voice mail or answering machines, you ran to the phone if it rang, because there was no way of knowing who it might be and It Might Be Important. I remember in high school one of my English teachers shocked our class by saying he didn’t always answer his phone when it rang. What if someone needed to reach you? we asked. I don’t remember his answer, or if he even gave one.

Of course there was no texting then, either, so you had to make a call to communicate with someone outside of your home.

My first job out of high school was at a bank. These days everything is done online, but back then, you got paid with a paper check that you had to deposit at a bank. Needless to say, pay days were busy. People would wait an hour in line, and we had fifteen tellers. There were no ATMs, either. The first ones were introduced while I was on that job, and they were game changers. But I don’t remember how you got the cash back, since there was no such thing as a debit card.

If you were sticking to a budget, you might write out checks to pay your bills once a month, then mail them the next day. You needed a lot more stamps back then. If you misplaced a bill, there was no email reminder to pay it and you might get behind in your payments.

Blogs? I guess the closest substitutes for what I’m doing here now would be journals or letters, and that meant hand writing everything. Which brings me to my next point. When I was in high school, I was told not to take typing, because if I knew how to type and my future boss knew this, I’d always be a secretary and could never move up. Through circumstances I won’t describe here, I did take a typing class, but came into the class late in the semester and never caught up. To this day I can’t type particularly well. Thank goodness for spell check.

So, like I said, I know what my life would look like. And I don’t like it.

Image Credits: Typewriter © olegkruglyak; Coins © LONDON2010; Rotary Phone © SRRiadi; Check © HaywireMedia All, stock.adobe.com

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Change Will Come

Daily writing prompt
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
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I’ve written about this before, so forgive me if you have read it already. But the best piece of advice I ever got was actually not exactly advice, but an observation from which you can draw your own conclusion. When I was in my 20s, my dad told me, “whether times are good or times are bad, we always think they’re going to last.”

If times are bad, we may not see a way out. If they’re good, we naively believe the good times will keep on rolling. I needed to hear that back then because my life was on a rocky road and I didn’t see an end in sight. By the time I hit 30, things had changed and I thought I was set for life (talk about naive!).

While my life has been on an even keel lately, I know that could change in a moment. My mom is 89 and has outlived her parents by quite a bit. I believe she’s likely to die suddenly, perhaps a stroke, and I know it could happen any day. My dad is also 89 and longevity runs in his family, so it wouldn’t surprise me if he lived another ten years. He’s very active, his mind is sharp, and he’s going strong.

But we got a bit of bad news last week about my uncle, my dad’s brother, who’s 92 and was also expected to live into his late 90s, just as their two older brothers and father had done. He has lung cancer and has been given 12-18 months to live (FYI, he’s not a smoker). That breaks my heart, and my dad is crushed as well. I hope to see my uncle in April, but there are a lot of ifs about that trip.

So you just never know what the day will bring. Tornadoes, fires, hurricanes–all of these hit innocent people on a regular basis.

But eventually the good comes back. My dad has buried two wives, one who had cancer and the other Alzheimer’s. Today, while the pain of those events lingers, he’s doing well. His long-time friends stepped up and he’s made new friends as well. He couldn’t golf much while Jeanne, the one with dementia, was sick, but he’s back to that three times a week, as well as bowling twice a week, bridge whenever he can, and bocce ball. Oh, and he works out and rides his bike on a regular basis. Like I said, he’s very active. And happy.

Of course the news about my uncle knocked him for a loop. He knows what my aunt will be facing and that hurts as well. It isn’t the time to tell her the good will come back, but hopefully his example helps her.

All we can do is live our lives.

Image Credits: Balance © Jane–stock.adobe.com; Happy Kids © mediastok.ai–stock.adobe.com; Bicycle © Lucky Step–stock.adobe.com