Friday, time to crack open the chocolate ice cream and unscripted version of beautiful you!
Got five minutes? Let’s write. Let’s finger paint with words.
Let’s just write and not worry if it’s just right or not. Here’s how to play along:
1. Write for 5 minutes flat for pure unedited love of the written word.
2. Link back here and invite others to join in {you can grab the button code in my blog footer}.
3. Go and comment on the post of the person who linked up before you. This is the one rule of this community.
It’s a great way to catch your breath at the end of a long week.
OK, are you ready? Let’s see your best five minutes for the prompt:
Lonely
GO
She is tired and thick-tongued and over thinks if she should speak up or be silent. She wavers in front of the soda fountain and contemplates the water and the ice and decides on a slice of lemon too. There are languages she doesn’t recognize that wash over her as she sits in a booth with her back to the chatter of three generations behind her. She is lonely but she isn’t alone.
Stories clamor for paper and she puts fingers to keyboard and pummels her memory for more details as she writes a love letter to the country that she came from and the children she never expected. She is a pilgrim on an otherwise ordinary Panera afternoon and you’d never tell it from the state of her hair or make up or name. She is somebody’s wife and somebody’s mother especially when she tells it in her own voice.
You can be lost and you can be found on the pages of a book. Worship lives in the telling. Because telling is testifying and testifying is seeing and seeing is believing all the endings that up until now have been blind faith. Sometimes you have to walk onto a page to walk out yourself.
Deliberately, eight hours at a time if you’ve got it in you.
She does today. She types straight through breakfast, lunch and dinner. She eats the past and it’s today’s dessert. So much wonder wrapped up in a love letter she never expected to write.
Let alone read.
STOP
{If you’re reading in an email, just click here to come and play along.}
i adore that line ‘worship lives in the telling’
xxx
This. “Sometimes you have to walk onto a page to walk out yourself.”
These words resonate in my soul and speak to that kindling…
Oh, beautiful. And love this: “She is somebody’s wife and somebody’s mother especially when she tells it in her own voice.” Yes, her own voice. Thank you.
Your words are beautiful…I especially love “you can be lost and you can be found on the pages of a book.”
well lets see if i play the game by the rules, first timer.
lonely
alone- it must be a state where u feel by yourself or secluded.
i like to be alone sometimes.
i could lie to myself often and say i like to be alone plainly. however i know the state of loneliness sounds of a battle cry for help. the call from a heart of being in a field looking for that approval.
something to touch, someone to to look at face to face.
the heart of another to mind of my dismay.
its a day of lonely when the college son drives away alone, the oldest of my womb.
the one i seem to relate most with besides the youngest who looks to me for fellowship.
i thank God he never really does leave me alone. considering the college son who is not lonely and has no idea what is ahead or even really what is behind, atleast not a clear view ahead, but the opposite of lonely – dreams and hope.
Love that you jumped in, Jesse. Thanks for sharing the opposite of lonely with us – we need that reminder.
Can I play without having a blog yet?
Oh yes! “You can be lost and you can be found on the pages of a book. Worship lives in the telling.” Beautiful!
Just love this line because it’s so true, “You can be lost and you can be found on the pages of a book.” I am all the time!
“She is lonely but she isn’t alone” …boy, do I know this feeling. Thankfully, my faith have really filled that empty place where it feels lonely to the point that it gets better with time. Lovely post as usual.
I cannot wait to read this love letter, Lisa-Jo. And this part, oh, I just want to sing it! “Worship lives in the telling. Because telling is testifying and testifying is seeing and seeing is believing all the endings that up until now have been blind faith.” Amen!
Thanks Ashley. I love how we writers get to walk that blind sight together :)
It’s been a few weeks since I tried this for the first time, so today I’ll be brave and try again…okay, five minutes on LONELY. And….go
Can you be lonely in a family that is busy and there are lots of things to do, see, tend to, worry about, etc. Sure. Can you be lonely in your own head, even though you’re really just doing the next right and necessary thing to continue the general progression of your world? Yep. Can you be lonely when you read a great story and wish it would continue beyond the pages of a book, and wish that you were BFFs with the great characters you’ve come to know? Indeed the best of stories should make you feel that way. And really, aren’t we meant to be a little lonely most if not all of the time? To yearn, at times equally, for both connection and escape? Eh, that’s life…and maybe it makes us better friends, better parents, better spouses…better more compassionate people.
STOP
I’m sitting here at work reading sections from this blog that I just discovered via a friend on FB. I know I should be working but now a days it the only down time; me time I get anymore with duties of being mommy, wife, housekeeper, chef, husbands personal assistant, and the other hundreds of titles we take on with having a family as a woman.
I want to say I loved your post and when I read it I thought omg she read my mind! Thank you for your words which make me feel a little more normal.
“Worship is the telling.” Great line. Thanks for hosting this–I’m playing along for the first time today.
Lonely
GO
I used to feel lonely sometimes. Like my husband is not here now, he is retired now and usually here. Am I lonely? No I have so much in me that needs to express itself in words, written or verbal, and he does not listen most of the time. I must write myself down and groups that I attend listen to how I feel and then I do not feel lonely. I have found that I had to go through a tumultuous experience to be heard and so I could speak my truth and someone would listen or read me. Am I lonely? No I believe in God and His presence and just around the corner surprises and being open to them. A lonely time is just a chance for me to reconsider and get out there and express myself to others and find out that I am not lonely, I need the group, I need others, meet others and reveal myself who is not so much different than the others who I have kept myself closed off from :)
STOP
Lisa, that might be one of my favorites of your writing. And you are such a talented writer! Thank you for giving a community of woman a voice and helping us help each other. HUGS! and hope you are enjoying your new home country ;)
Before you wrote that you were in Panera, I thought, “I bet she’s in Panera!” Panera… one of the best “lonely yet not alone” places. I love the way you write & the very lyrical turn of your everyday words; your tone just resonates within me… “somebody’s wife & somebody’s mother”… “you can be lost & you can be found in the pages of a book”… love those lines! You have inspired me to write. Again. I have a blog somewhere. I can’t even remember where it is or how to get back to it. So I’m writing here today.
AND GO…
Lonely… a deep well of meaning & longing within its confines. So deep it sometimes feels as endless as the ocean, as undiscovered as it depths. She wakes up and goes to bed; another day done. And the world keeps turning, & she wonders if she stands still for just a minute will she be noticed, a seen… a mother, a wife, a sister, a daughter… but, also, still her self. Once a girl… That girl that she sometimes still sees in the mirror; she’s still there in her eyes, you know. And while there is a constant running dialogue in her head – she’s so witty while she’s loading the dishwasher, she is mainly silent. Her children laugh & play & complain & watch noisy TV shows… a continual hum running in the background. A washing machine. The dog barking. She lies beside her husband in the dark. And in the shower she cries. Quietly.
I like your writing. It seems to have emotion evident in it, and that is a good thing in writing :D
I know, right? Panera is the perfect kind of alone company to write in!
http://w11.zetaboards.com/BeautifullyADisaster/index/
This is my entry for today :D
Your word of choice was a tough one for me today and I can’t say why. I started to school this morning with the blues and then during our inservice I read your email and the word just jumped out at me.
This somehow makes me want to weep and smile all at the same time Lisa-Jo. It encourages and cheers and inspires. You, lovely girl, have a way of putting your heart right there on the page, and I love it.
“Stories clamor for paper and she puts fingers to keyboard and pummels her memory for more details as she writes a love letter to the country that she came from and the children she never expected.”
this is my favorite news.
I love reading what you post, Lisa-Jo. Thank you for sharing.
I tried to comment on Jen’s (at Raising Nats Fans) post, but Blogger is having issues and won’t let me. So I’m posting it here and hoping that she sees it. Hope that’s okay.
Hi Jen,
I wandered over here from Lisa-Jo’s page, and I’m glad I did. I can definitely relate as I struggle with loneliness, too. It’s funny how people in different stages of life and on different paths can connect with this because so many people struggle with it, at least sometimes. I don’t have kids, so I can’t imagine what it’s like to have to go a week without them. My heart goes out to you! *virtual hug*
I really appreciate the honesty of this. I think it helps to not feel like you have to hold it in–these FMFs are rather cathartic, no? I want to encourage you to keep sharing your story, and to keep reaching out to your support network when you start to feel lonely. Afterall, that’s what friends are for! :)
Peace,
Olivia Faix
I think many of us in this world feel alone or isolated, like no one out there could possibly understand what it might feel like to be them. I think we all get it more than we let on to others and there is such a need to be confident and poise that showing even a slightest little bit of vulnerability like being lonely, seems like a weakness. I loved how you wrote this and have read so many other posts saying the exact same things, yet we all feel so alone in this busy crazy world.
Well, it monday. I didnt have 5 min on fri to even read let alone write. But these words have moved me into thoughtfulness. And i will catch you this week for sure.
Robyn, the same occurred to me. I wrote on Saturday after working and feeling hungry. Hugs for you. It’s great that you are coming along kicking all the odds of impossibilities like me. What a awful week but I decided to not give an inch for praise to the one that is grouchy all the time and looking for bring us trouble. Not a name. Only praise God, it’s past Friday.
Red
I cannot believe that again Friday went and the laptop tells me it’s not Friday. Absolutely insane! Another week is ending and my red post is not up; it’s upside down as most of my life is right now.
The lipstick for the birthday party is resting in the drawer and the gathering is over. On the table lies a bag of goodies gathered by my grandson – the piñata splashed in pieces after his third hit. The kids rushed to the candies and surprisingly he just looked at the rushing till someone told him to run. That is their version. I wasn’t there to scream in excitement.
Raising a child again and it seems that somehow the stories are the same as my sons would say: “Mom lost many of our parties.” I was away from the party working and it disturbed me. At this time, the conversation after the party was full of stories about the dishes I didn’t eat and his playtime in the gigantic jumper, the wrestling with the other kids, and all the sodas he drank. No food or cake, only a rainbow lollipop.
I do not feel guilt! The empty house allowed me a naptime. I pray for another chance to wear my garnet lip color with my grand boy at another party.
Lonely, late=) http://bellesbazaar-heather.blogspot.com/2013/10/lonely-five-minute-prompt.html
Ok, I had to write lonely again when I found out what was truly lonely to me.=)
Ok I just redid lonely. Phew, I am a crybaby.=) Desiree Hurst Olenslager http://bellesbazaar-heather.blogspot.com/2013/10/lonely-take-2.html
I look forward to this time because it makes me write when I don’t want to.