During the month of October I’m spending 31 days writing about writing. Seems appropriate that every Friday we pause and do a kind of mad, flash mob celebration of the written word, eh?
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. Where we just write without worrying if it’s just right or not.
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 Juanita who shares the most amazing power of this group of rabid writers and believers:
“You posted “Wide” and immediately all I could think of was how wide the body of Christ is in its ability to reach out, pray for and encourage each other. Fresh on my mind was our former pastors’ daughter Emma, who is not quite 15 and just recently diagnosed with leukemia.
Hours before FMF I had received a message from a friend 8 hours away and literally 5 provinces removed from where Emma is. My friend’s husband used to be the worship pastor under Emma’s dad’s pastorate. They are rallying the troops to have a benefit worship service for Emma’s family.
Meanwhile on Twitter and FB the feeds were lighting up with people far and wide praying for this family. In a matter of hours the Church was rising up. And I was struck. So I wrote my FMF post about the ground-swell of support and pleas for prayer for this girl who, that very night, was in physical distress.
I woke Friday morning to countless messages from people I did not know who had been praying for Emma every hour through the night from all over the world. Friday afternoon, Emma was so much better than she had been the night before and Saturday she was moved out of ICU for the first time since she was admitted 2 weeks ago.
Thank you for the FMF group and for continuing to encourage all of us to share, be bold and bless each other. I have been blessed more than I could have ever imagined!”
Just wow, right?! Got a FMF story you want to share with us? Email me.
Now, set your timer, clear your head, for five minutes to just write without worrying if it’s just right or not.
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? In the spirit of welcoming the 31 Dayers to join us, won’t you please give me your best five minutes on:::
Welcome…
GO
Welcome is rarely a word. It’s that smile on her face when we make it to church in time for donuts – how she lifts the basket down from the table so my baby girl on her tippy toes can choose one. All that brand new hugging hard onto all that life well lived.
It’s how she scooches over on the bed and makes room for me to keep on talking even though it’s long past both our bedtimes. It’s how she doesn’t brush me off, doesn’t ignore, doesn’t down play. It’s how she listens with her whole face.
It’s how she shares her secret dreams with me and how we both admit that dreaming can make us scared. It’s how they’re never tired of listening to my “new something.” It’s how they always cheer and hoot and holler and dance out there in the rain with me even when it’s only raining in our imaginations and the dancing comes through keyboards and 140 character hugs.
It’s how the middle one offers me a drink from my own glass of water in the middle of the night. That boy all sweaty with fever and bringing the glass over to me and then asking me to go and refill it.
It’s how that baby will feed me cheese curls from her own mouth. Whether I want them or not. It’s how that seven-year-old laughs with abandon like the moon. His face a reflection of all that is bright and beautiful in the Son.
It’s how their dad leaves the light on for me even when he goes to bed hours before. The pillow is waiting, the sheets cool, the bed a welcome.
STOP
OK, show us what you got! {Subscribers, you can just click here to come over and play along}
::
Love your word! You always make me and so many others feel welcome here every Friday. But not just on Friday’s, but everyday. You love us with your smiling words. Thank you!
Thank you so much Lisa-Jo for letting me tell Emma’s story that is , in fact, GOD’s story. Such a privilege and joy to be a part of this community!
I was one of those praying – so fab to hear more of the story and how God can link us together. Such an encouragement!
You are such a welcoming presence! I love your heart for others! Thank for allowing me to be a part of this community. Thank you for always making me feel welcome!
Thank you for 5 min. Fridays…it’s an awesome idea that gets people to hone their writing skills and connect! I have been having fun participating and meeting others and leaving comments on the blog before me. So far I haven’t noticed the person after me popping over to say hello, but I am only 2 weeks in to this, so not sure if everyone participates like that or not. Excited to see what the word will be for next week already :)
Oh rats! That’s a bummer. But I bet if you blog hop a bit and leave a trail of comments all kinds of new friends will start to pop over to say hello :)
Lisa Jo, you have created a place where I truly feel welcomed, every week! Thank you. I just love it when babies are so thoughtful and want to share…even when we really don’t want their saliva soaked snacks. great visual! :)
I love your take on “welcome”, Lisa-Jo. It’s peaceful and real. Thank you for welcoming us every week :)
thank you again, Lisa-Jo, for giving us a place to share our hearts without fear. it is amazing!
Okay, love, love, LOVE that picture! The joy and laughter that is oozing out of it is exactly what God wants for His friends.
Like the others, I’ve always felt so welcomed here and touched by your generous spirit. Thank you for sharing with us all!
Way to crank out the goodness, Lisa-Jo! Love it. You’re such a great writer.
I came over to play today. It’s been a while. You saved me, Lisa-Jo. I was going to not post a thing on my blog today, because I need to devote time to some other writing in a big way. But your prompts are such a great way to get past that overwhelming sense that we need an hour to put together the words… Thank you for this, for being so welcoming here, and for daring us to write like the wind! :)_
What a wonderful topic, and such a good post. Thanks for a wonderful community spirit here.
So I have no fancy linky to a blog or website or frankly time to figure out where else to stick this so comments seems good enough because I love this 5 minute thing… here’s my 1st:
Welcome…
So that’s the topic and the time is 5 minutes so I better type cause if I write it out I might not be able to read it later and I’ll get less out. And if there’s less out can there ever be more in?
The topic is ‘Welcome.” So ‘Well Come’ on in, ‘Well Come’ on over, ‘Well Come’ on get started… Well in the Coming not in the leaving. That’s what true community is about and is that word ‘come’ in that other one ‘community’? Etymologically speaking maybe not but in real living breathing life abso-freakin-lutely how can we hope to have any sense of community without a coming over, coming out, coming forth, coming together, becoming well, even a Savior who came to us and a God who reached out his very hand and said to His Son our brother ‘Well Come’ on up here boy give your Daddy a hug.
And yet community is so lacking because people leave ‘Welcome’ as a word on their doorstep and we all wipe mud on it in an effort to not mar up another’s floors or something when it says it so clearly in Galatians somewhere I’ll paraphrase it here; get in the mess of life with each other bear each other’s burdens. So if you have dust on your shelves and I have mud on my boots ‘well come’ on get over it all and get it out because all that really matters are souls coming in, coming together… and for that not a house-mat that says cold W-E-L-C-O-M-E but hospitable arms that embrace friends and their dirty ugly parts – that is what makes ‘WELCOME’ warm and true beauty.
~ Me
I just found your blog on the Nester 31 Day Challenge, and so far I am loving it. Thanks so much for all of the writing tips and inspiration!
Thanks for stopping by – feel free to put your feet up on the furniture and make yourself at home!
Welcome — you have this action in spades :) HUGS!
You have a freedom that comes only from practice and prompts us towards it as well. Thank you for this space I am coming to enjoy and the promise that Friday’s I, too, will practice being free for just five minutes! Thanks!!!
OH THAT PICTURE. Makes me crack up and miss you all at once. :)
I love you friend…thanks for being all things wonderful to this mess of a girl. You are a gift to me! xoxo
“Shake it, don’t break it, it took your mama nine months to make it” :)
I had a great time with this topic. Also, thanks for sharing 31 Days of with us. I’m off to read my 10 (or so) posts from the link up. Take care!
I am loving this!
As always, I love your five minute fridays. I thought this one would be a problem with my own 31 day writing journey, but it fit right in. Thank you so much for doing this. It is one of my favorite times of the week.
Squeezing in at the end of Friday to join in! Grateful for you all! Happy weekend!
i usually don’t get to join in until it is saturday for all the east coasters, but i sure do love when i can be a part of the 5 minute friday. i am always surprised what comes out when i am writing under the time pressure. thanks for welcoming me here to join in and let me heart speak out instead of over-thinking.
my recent post: you’re welcome
That was so beautiful. I did not understand it until I read the very last line… I kept wondering if welcome was a specific person, or memory or what… and then it clicked. Each and every act of kindness and love you descriptively wrote about was a “welcome” of its own.
Have had several Busy days and just finally had time to write what’s been ‘working in my head’ – posted it to my blog – to then get here to post and it’s Closed!! ;-{ I’ve posted late before… hmmm… So – here’s the link to my post…in case anyone wants to come visit –
Lynden
http://aneleganttouch-lynden.blogspot.com/p/5-minute-fridays.html
I love this picture!
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I mean 31 days to write your story day 5 Five Minute Friday: Welcome – Lisa-Jo Baker is kinda vanilla.
You could glance at Yahoo’s front page and note how they create article headlines to get viewers interested. You might try adding a video or a picture or two to grab readers interested about everything’ve got to say.
Just my opinion, it could make your website a
little bit more interesting.
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