Come join a weekly flash mob of writers at #FiveMinuteFriday <–Click to Tweet this
Where a beautiful crowd spends five minutes all writing on the same topic and then sharing ’em over here.
How to Join:
Want to know how Five Minute Friday got started and how to participate? All the details are here.
Featured Five Minute Friday:
And every week I’ll pick a post that caught my eye and share it down there in my side bar – see where it says “Featured Five Minute Friday”? Yea -that could be you! Hop on over and visit some folk who make fireworks in just five minutes. They inspire me.
What They’re Saying:
I also have some Five Minute Friday stories from participants I love to share each week – I can never get over the community that has grown up over a five minute writing exercise.
This one’s from Jenn who shares the craziest, six-degrees-of-separation type tale ever:
“Some of the most important times of my life were the summers I spent at Baylor Camp. From age 11 to 22, I was there every summer but one.
In that time, several families became close friends, albeit ones that I only saw in the summer. At the time, I didn’t realize the true significance of these friendships with campers and their families: these were the first family friendships that I formed independently of my parents. These were my family friends!
In the age of smart phones, Facebook, Twitter, and myriad other ways to stay connected, it seems odd to say I lost touch with almost all these families for years, but we were operating without social media then.
As I timidly stepped into the online world, I was delighted to reconnect with many of the campers and counselors I’d known. It would be a few more years before I started blogging.
When I did, there were days I wasn’t sure what to write about. Committed to the discipline of writing and posting regularly, reclaiming my place as a writer alongside my beloved role as Sweetie and Mommy, I wanted to keep writing, keep connecting.
Enter Five-Minute Fridays.
I discovered Lisa-Jo’s online community in the funny way we stumble onto so many things online, by clicking a link that leads to a link that leads to another. I wish I could retrace my path and thank the source.
Because, in participating in Five-Minute Fridays, I’ve connected with several new online friends and strengthened one very important friendship.
You guessed it. One of my dear Baylor Camp friends is a blogger and a Five-Minute Fridays participant. Reading her take on the prompts makes me smile.
It’s just enough of a taste of Baylor Camp to make BlogWorld feel like home.
How fun is that?! Got a FMF story you want to share with us? Email me.
Now, set your timer, clear your head, for five minutes of free writing without worrying about getting it right.
1. Write for 5 minutes flat – no editing, no over thinking, no backtracking.
2. Link back here and invite others to join in.
3. And then absolutely, no ifs, ands or buts about it, you need to visit the person who linked up before you & encourage them in their comments. Seriously. That is, like, the rule. And the fun. And the heart of this community..
Oh and Ahem, if you would take pity and turn off comment verification, it would make leaving some love on your post that much easier for folks!
OK, are you ready? Please give us your best five minutes on:::
Focus…
GO
Funny how the closer I look at her the less I notice my own chaos. The mess and the race and the daily chase of dishes and life and laundry and those moths that seem to be taking over the pantry just fade into a beautiful bokeh background when she dimples up at me.
I’ve been gone five days and she won’t let me out of her sight. The playground beckons and I can tell she gets just so many steps ahead and needs to run back to make sure I’m still there. That shiny, red fire truck jungle gym she’s just close enough to touch loses out to a shriek and a giggle and chubby legs running back to throw themselves into me.
I love it.
This being loved.
This giving kisses as a super power.
Jackson’s right elbow is scraped through and through. Micah didn’t cry today when I said good-bye. He told me how he didn’t cry even though it’s been so long since I even remember him crying. They listed their thanks out tonight – a litany prayed to a bunk bed ceiling.
Small boys in big hearts.
I see and see and see them so clearly I don’t need to take a photograph. It’s there. Crisp. Clear. My memory prints the moment. I put it in the back pocket of these jeans I bought on a whim. Nothing can fade it. Nothing can steal it.
I see you boys.
I see you daughter.
I see.
STOP
OK, show us what you got! {Subscribers, you can just click here to come over and play along}
Do you live to make me cry!?
But this is the happy stuff. The happy cry at the very least :)
Too true! Except that they grow up.
I think that the best thing about being a mama. Knowing that your kisses are superhero powers is pretty much the coolest thing ever. And I think that memories are one of God’s most precious gifts to us mamas. Those are the things that will keep up warm when we’re old.
I told you…never fails. tears of joy for you tonight, friend! What a beautiful write…oh I want to call up your kiddos and tell them every word over the phone…
Wow…this was intense for me, but I decided to share it anyway. Might be my only 5-minute Friday…it’s very vulnerable if you don’t think about it first, because what you right about becomes word association w/ the topic word (for me anyway), and what comes to mind at the moment might be personal, or not-so-pretty as in my case tonight. Thanks for the writing exercise though :)
Oh…the look she give you and the little waddle back and the hug to your legs and the reach to your arms…I can just picture it all…beautiful focus…!
yup, love my kissing super power, makes dinosaur happy and loved
Great, Great Post!
Thank you!!!
And now that is written down, you really won’t forgot. A beautiful word photograph.
Beautiful. I just got back from a week long trip away from my family. Each time I spend time away from my son, it seems he grows up SO MUCH in those short few days. Time away always reminds me to slow down and cherish him.
“My memory prints the moment.”–I love it! Your writing is so descriptive, especially of your little joys, that I feel like I just looked through one of your photo albums. Amazing!! And inspiring, as always!
This is beautiful and powerful and such a memory to keep. A great reminder to focus on what is really important. Thank you.
What sweetness with being with you children… I can imagine that little one being your shadow. It is easy to see what her focus is on… Bless You!
love Love LOVE!! Miss those days (just a little) and missing little one’s a LOT right now. sigh. better get out of these 4 walls and live a little…put life back into focus… hehe
I love these Five Minute Fridays! I don’t have a blog or website, so I can’t link up, but I still join with you guys every week! It’s something that’s helped me stay in-touch with my pre-mommy self, the one that loved to write. It’s pretty shocking, the kinds of things that come out when I write like this. It’s good for the soul! :)
Sometimes I wish I would’ve been a writer/blogger when my kids were small, to have a day like you described written down is a gift to treasure.
FOCUS
Focu has never been a strong quality for me . . in fact, I don’t think it is a quality I have possessed at all. Or have I? From when I was young, I was perhaps less active the other kids, don’t get me wrong, I am an extrovert. I love being with people and always have. However, I’ve also loved thinking and daydreaming, and talking. And well, that always got me into trouble. Talking, thinking when I was supposed to be “working.” My lack of focus has foolowed me, throughout my school years and right into adulthood. At times (many times, in fact), having a lack of focus, and getting “lost in my head” has caused me great anguish and depression. Being my own worst critic. With much resistance on my part, I have finally (at the age of 28) decided to start post-secondary. Knowing my lack of focus is not cured. . . .but now, for the first time I see it differently. I see that I have genuinely had struggles (ADHD) that are beyond me, that I don’t have to be ashamed but can say it out-loud, and ask for help where I need it. I now see that my lack of focus on school work, or house work, my disorganization and lack of time- management skills have come from a place as a child where I had to retreat, because “denial is a shock absorber for the soul.” I see how being all over the place in my thinking and talking, is a part of who I am, and has heightened my creativity.
This is so fun! 5 minutes is too quick for me to come up withsomething that makes sense, but then as I write, I realize the time pressure and no- editing rule allow me to express what my heart is telling me. Thank you for a fun friday!
It’s my first time linking up! So excited to join this amazing community of women and writers!
I usually try to write my own Five Minute Friday before I start reading yours so as to give free reign to whatever drops of creativity I have left at the end of the week.
This week: fail! But I’ve never been so happy to be reminded that my kisses are a superpower to one small little being on this earth. I love this being loved too. :) More than I can say. In five minutes, at least.
Kisses as a superpower-love it!
I loved the word this week. Thank you for Five Minute Fridays!
This is so cool! I’m interested in participating, but not sure how or where to find the prompt for next week!
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