This
meme was started by Delores a long time ago. Computer issues led her
to bow out for a while. The meme was too much fun to let go, and now
Words for Wednesday is provided by a number of people and has become a
movable feast.
Essentially
the aim is to encourage us to write. Each week we are given a choice
of prompts: which can be words, phrases, music or an image. What we
do with those prompts is up to us: a short story, prose, a song, a
poem, or treating them with ignore... We can use some or all of the
prompts, and mixing and matching is encouraged.
Some
of us put our creation in comments on the post, and others post on
their own blog. I would really like it if as many people as possible
joined into this fun meme, which includes cheering on the other participants. If you are posting on your own blog - let me know so that I, and other participants, can come along and applaud.
This month the prompts will be here.
This week's prompts are:
First an image, which some of you have seen before.
And secondly some words because some people (me) struggle with visual prompts.
- Horizon
- Tired
- Coincidence
- Splashed
- Holiday
- Understand
I wonder if that's even close to what real angels look like.
ReplyDeleteA fun prompt. I will have to try it.
Sandi: I hope you will. I really hope it.
DeleteI understand that many people have a guardian angel. Most of the angels have a part-time job. They nudge their charges onto the right path, and occasionally redirect them when they are about to step in front of a speeding car. An occasional small miracle is required. The rest of the time they are able to perfect their harp playing. Robyn had four guardian angels. And she needed them. Oh yes they had to do their fair share of nudging and redirecting, but their tasks didn’t stop there. When Robyn had a small lottery win she broadened her horizons and splashed out on a holiday to Bali. Her first ever overseas holiday.
ReplyDeleteHer angels worked in shifts. And worked very, very hard, protecting her (among other things) from pickpockets, from disease, from food poisoning and (not least) her own actions and clumsiness. They convinced her that getting a tattoo from a stunning looking man without checking the hygiene of his operations in the marketplace wasn’t perhaps the most sensible decision.
It was amazing just how many ‘lucky’ escapes she had. Robyn put it down to fortunate coincidences. In a postcard home she told the tale of the time she brought back the surfboard she had hired with a huge bite out of it, right where her arm had been hanging – until she had an itch she ‘had’ to scratch. The angel who had used his wing to tickle her arm knew better, and the shark had a mouthful of feathers. Later that same day his coworker had shepherded Robyn and her motor cycle through the busiest intersection in town when all the traffic lights had failed had pushed and steered Robyn through the chaos, and had called on divine intervention more than once.
They were home again now. As always two angels remained on duty. The others said they were tired (getting her through customs had been a challenge) and had announced they were having the afternoon off. Tired wasn’t the word. Angel the first had made it to bed. The second angel had simply crashed to the floor. The angels on duty stepped over him, and wondered out loud ‘Who guards the guardians?’
I love the idea of angels having a part time job. And having four guardian angels. Wouldn't that be grand?
DeleteHugs
And who guards the guardening guardian? ;-)
DeleteAs almost always: I do not need a holiday splashed on the horizon or any coincidence to understand that I shall hardly get tired to read the stories angels might inspire you to write. ;-)
A really great story and a good question: who guards the guardians? Robyn is lucky to have four of them.
DeleteSandra Cox: I cringe at the idea of NEEDING four guardian angels. If I have one I hope it has a very, very easy job.
DeleteSean Jeating: You are a flatterer. Thank you.
River: As I said to Sandra I hope to never need the services of one guardian angel - let alone four.
A comment including all prompts ought to be considered 'flattering', of course. ;-)
DeleteMy hope is my #2 Son has at least this many. He now owns two motorcycles!
DeleteNothing short of brilliant, Sue!
DeleteOh you had me laughing, marvelous story EC, we all should be so lucky and tow around a group of angels with us! Though I did have a parking angel gifted to me one time and she hung on my rearview mirror and as long as she was up there I never had a problem finding a spot.
DeleteXO
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Elephant's Child: I like this story but I think I need to know why Robyn has four angels. Is she more important then other people or just accident-prone more the most? Good story.
DeleteHave a lovely day.
lissa: I think she needs four angels because she is just so accident prone - and careless with it.
DeleteHi EC - love this story ... four guardian angels - and you incorporated the image into the story ... the fourth angel is behind the scenes in the photo. A happy story - and yes we have our fortunes (thankfully) in life ... cheers Hilary
DeleteWell written! I guess we've all looked back on times when we made our guardian angels work overtime. My goal in life is to keep my guardian angels' work as peaceful and uneventful as possible. :-)
DeleteDiane Henders: These days my guardian angel has very little to do. She deserves a break.
Delete"...and (not least) her own actions and clumsiness. They convinced her that getting a tattoo from a stunning looking man without checking the hygiene of his operations in the marketplace wasn’t perhaps the most sensible decision."
ReplyDeleteMay the angels protect you from good looking men. (That should be a saying.)
The part about the angel tickling her reminds me of a novel I read once. In it an angel was messing with someone's car to direct them elsewhere. Of course, all unseen. I love stuff like that.
In case angels existed and thus were able to protect, I'd suggest not to protect against good looking men, but against those who are evil, reckless,stupid (choose any negative adjective you like).
DeleteThis goes, of course, vice versa.
In this case the good looking man is dangerous. 😂
DeleteHa ha ha ...
DeleteWith the holiday on the horizon and more splashed about the calendar, you'll understand it's no coincidence I'm tired already.
ReplyDeleteMike: Captain Succinct rides again. I love it. And someday the prompts will force you to write two sentences.
DeleteNo coincidence? So the angels might be doing their bit.
DeleteYou'll need those angels to help guard your rest, as you are right, it's a busy time of year coming up.
DeleteNice variety and the image is a bonus!
ReplyDeleteAlex J. Cavanaugh: Thank you. The image is a bonus for the visual minded among us...
DeleteWhen would he understand? During a holiday in Mongolia to widen his horizon almost tired of a discussion about the existence or non-existence of angels, his counterpart, while – coincidence? – the evening sky looked like a canvas splashed in a sinphonia of yellows and reds, suddenly said with a smile: "A frog sitting in the well judges the extent of the sky by the edge of the well."
ReplyDeleteUff! Please read: sin-fonia (sic!).
DeleteSean Jeating: I suspect that frog has a wider vision than many people... And I love your take on the prompts.
DeleteWell done!
DeleteInteresting take. Bravo!
DeleteXO
WWW
Nice variety of words. Horizon and holiday brings back the image of me on a swing by the beach!
ReplyDeleteKelly Steel: They sound like excellent memories.
DeleteI think this one is gong to be difficult, I'll have to sleep on it.
ReplyDeleteRiver: As always I have faith in you.
DeleteOkay, heading in now, back soonish,
ReplyDeleteMy words will be over here.
DeleteI was here, left a short story about angels and was called away for an errand of mercy and somehow didn't successfully clicked publish and lost it. This is a short true story in itself but my other true story is this.
ReplyDeleteYears ago, I underwent a radical mastectomy for 3rd stage breast cancer and my son came to visit me at the hospital. He told me that he was very worried about me and he had lent me his angel to look after me during the operation and that he had been very careful all day because his angel was busy watching over me. He was 30 years old at the time. I thought this was a very touching and loving moment.
And now for the fiction short story.
I was tired after working all afternoon in the garden and as I watched the glorious sun setting on the horizon, thinking about the coming Halloween Holiday I got splashed by bird on the wire who by coincidence was also watching the sun set. No use to swear at it because it would not understand any way.
Julia
Julia: Your son lending you his angel is a truly loving moment. And seems to have worked. I love your second story too.
DeleteYour son's care for you is so touching!
DeleteBirds are so careless.
Oh my your son's care and love shines out of this story. Along with your fiction piece. Excellent writing.
DeleteXO
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One of those "little" experiences in one's life to never forget. To read it let me feel good.
DeleteAnd now I "learned" it would not understand, anyway, I shall never ever swear again when splashed by a a bird. Thank you.
Hi Julia - both snippets of life hold fun memories for you ... the care of a son - wonderful. Thank you - Hilary
DeleteLovely story EC.
ReplyDeleteMargaret D: Thank you.
DeleteThe angel image is great. I'm reminded of my favorite episodes of the new Dr. Who with David Tennant called Blink. Don't blink, don't turn your back, don't move!
ReplyDeleteBea: Those angels didn't move while I was watching, but who knows...
DeleteThe Horizon is Tired,
ReplyDeleteCoincidence Splashed
Across the Holiday.
At last I Understand
Cloudia: Thank you for joining us. I really like your poem. I hate to think of the horizon being tired though...
DeleteOh please, don't let the horizon be tired. There are still too many beautiful sun rises and sun sets yet to return, to feel fatigued. Perhaps the angels can help. Perhaps it's no coincidence that Holiday is splashed everywhere we look. I hope that one day I will understand what's its all about.
DeleteI think the POV saw the horizon as tired. I can understand that.
DeleteXO
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Well done!
DeleteYep.
DeleteHere's a link to my contribution: WfW
ReplyDeleteCharlotte (MotherOwl): I have read it - and as usual I would really, really like to read more. Greedy aren't I?
DeleteSome great stories and ideas - you are all really good with words.
ReplyDeleteBest wishes
Ellie
Ellie Foster: Thank you. It is a fun meme. Some week I would really like it if you joined us.
DeleteHi EC - I'll be back ... but I too need 'words' ...
ReplyDeleteShe understood the need for a holiday … but by co-incidence she was too tired of that vanishing horizon … she need sun, sea and splash – just immediately a few days of peace …
Take care - cheers Hilary
Well done!
DeleteXO
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Hilary Melton-Butcher: I so understand that need. Great use of the prompts. I am also glad that other people respond better to words than images. I feared I was alone.
DeleteA few days like that can be a life-saver.
DeleteAh, imagine: a few days of peace ... all over this planet.
DeleteYou will no doubt UNDERSTAND that most of the angels I have encountered have been of the fallen variety. If you look closely at my own life you will appreciate that there is no COINCIDENCE in that. To tell you the truth, I have never TIRED of them; their experiences have been the interesting ones, the ones that people who aspire to be real angels secretly covet. For those people, their HORIZONS will never broaden. They will be stuck in the sanctimonious pomposity of their self-conferred righteousness forever. Take a HOLIDAY from it I say. Don’t worry about getting anointed with holy water, it’s time to get splashed from the well of iniquity!
ReplyDeleteI really like how your take wound down to the last sentence. Bravo!
DeleteXO
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David M. Gascoigne: Love it - and I also find the fallen angels interesting, and sometimes excellent company.
DeleteIf it's sanctimonious and pompous, it's not holy.
Delete"Imaginary evil is romantic and varied, real evil is gloomy, monotonous, barren, boring. Imaginary good is boring, real good is always new, marvelous, intoxicating." Simone Weil
Want a true story? Grandpa dated, and by that i mean went on dates with, not slept with, almost every nursing student in the nursing school when he was in medical school. He met one young lady and asked her out, and later found out she was a stripper! He was shocked, and asked her why in the world she would go out with him, since he had a "he's a nice boy" reputation.
Her response was that he was a nice boy, a gentleman who treated her nicely and didn't expect anything of her. She wanted to be treated like a young lady, not like a body.
Sorry if i've said too much, EC you may delete this if i've gone overboard.
Holidays? Yes. Holyness? Oh well.
DeleteHi David - love the take - those with a glint in their eyes and not too perfect a take on life tend to enjoy life to the full ... cheers Hilary
DeleteI used all the prompts and the picture. This was such fun.
ReplyDelete---------------------------------------------------------------
Passersby were deaf to their pleas. Why was that? Why were their voices muted along with their bodies? A coincidence, surely?
The twins could be trapped behind the railings forever if that was the case. They never even had a holiday. They couldn’t understand why they were being punished like this.
A couple of hooligans passed, splashing them with muddy water from the recent rain. They were so very tired of holding this ridiculous pose inflicted on them, vulnerable to any abuse.
They never looked up and out as the distant horizon taunted them, filling them with longing. They only had each other and their twinnish ways of constant communication. Their only comfort.
Another hundred years of suffering loomed. It was unbearable.
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Now I'm going up to read your worthy efforts.
XO
WWW
Wisewebwoman: Brilliant - and if I was to be frozen in any pose for eternity I would hope for a very different one.
DeleteSo very sad for them, i hope they are released someday.
DeleteHooligans versus Holiness: The winner is ...
DeleteThere were three on the balcony--each one identical to the other. Pale-skinned, suitably pious, unaware and unprepared for what crept from behind out of the darkness.
ReplyDeleteIt was too late to save the one, would it be too late to save the others?
cleemckenzie: Ooooh. What could take out an angel? More please (and thank you for joining us).
DeleteThat's a bit scary, and very well done.
DeleteOh that's interesting idea and good excercise in writing. I will try and think about something just for myself :)
ReplyDeleteQuiet and Sun by Alexa: I do hope that you will share your thoughts. Please.
DeleteWhen we were kids, there were so many fairy and angels stories in our lives. These stories were so popular at that times and yes angels have protected us since that times. I think we connect them with our prays.
ReplyDeletebread&salt: I don't think I ever heard any angel stories growing up. Some of the fairy stories were frightening. Your stories sound much more pleasant.
DeleteHere's my take on the prompt. A continued story from last week. Here's the link: Trudy Fine's Very Short Journey Through Space (2)
ReplyDeleteThanks for the prompts. Have a lovely day.
lissa: I have read your story - and was intrigued at the very different direction the prompts took you.
DeleteBuon sabato.
ReplyDeleteGiancarlo: Thank you - and to you.
Delete