When last did you write for fun?
Not to impress anyone, not for blog hits or comments or Pinterest pins?
When last did you just write?
On Fridays over here a group of people who love to go all out buck wild for the fun of the written word gather to share what five minutes buys them. Just five minutes. Unscripted. Unedited. Real.
If you have writer’s block – we have the cure <—click to tweet this!
1. Write for 5 minutes flat – no editing, no over thinking, no backtracking
2. Link back here and invite others to join in.
3. Please visit the person who linked up before you & encourage them in their comments.
OK, are you ready? Give me your best five minutes on:
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Real…
:
GO
Telling people how you’re really doing takes coming out of the nooks and crannies of your own life. Brush off that thing you didn’t do and that insecurity you were comfortably hiding behind and open your mouth to say what you really mean, not what you think they really wanted to hear.
Funny how sometimes they turn out to be the same thing.
Some women want to know. They want to know more than what car you drive and where you get your nails done. They want to bear down with you as we labor over real connection.
It can be uncomfortable to say the least.
We can stumble over our words and the shoes we choose to wear. We can wilt against walls – awkward flowers.
But if we’re willing to test the waterproof mascara and tell it like we live it, not like we wish we lived it, then maybe we can meet in the middle.
We can dish up another slice of that cake and feed the kids Cheerios while we feed ourselves what was missing yesterday.
Who understands a 10 day course of child laxative treatments better than another mother. Give us a green park bench at the edge of a basketball court behind and a jungle gym in front and we will laugh ourselves into embarrassing our kids. And we won’t care.
We’ll just keep remembering the insanity that is the ordinary every dayness of motherhood when there’s so much diarrhea only a pizza box is large enough to try and corral it. And no, I didn’t just say that out loud.
But maybe I did. Because if you looked over my shoulder that would be my real. Days of laundry cycles on “heavy” and large doses of Oxiclean.
But my how we laughed at the side of the elementary school on Tuesday and it spilled over into the rest of my week.
All that real.
STOP
PS: Meet Wolfie, the latest addition to our family. 10 week old Beagle mix pup we adopted and love and did I mention lurrrrv?
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Sometimes it feels safer in hiding rather than coming out from those nooks and crannies. But I know the rewards of being real are worth it. Thanks for being real here on your blog–I always find encouragement here. And thanks for hosting us on Fridays; you are a lovely hostess.
Love your REAL heart, Lisa-Jo. And your little puppy? Too cute…. how special for your children (and you all!) What fun you will have with that one!! ;)
They want to bear down with you as we labor over real connection. Real connections does take some labor…but the new life born between two souls if worth the pain. Thanks for this place…have a blessed weekend…and enjoy that new little puppy.
sweet mercy, woman! i have been there, and i know. to mercies new in the morning, and friends who understand:)
I’m famous for the “I’m fine” response, even when I am not. I want to learn to bare my soul with the woman God has brought into my life! Adorable puppy!
Oh my good gravy, that little face! Thanks for always being real, Lisa-Jo.
Oh, how much better life would be if we were truly real with one another instead of putting on our masks. Thanks for hosting and sharing. Your puppy and babies are the cutest! :)
Linky not working for me to day.
Pizza boxes and diarrhea in the same sentence? Now that’s real. ;)
I know, right? My humble apologies :) I was going to delete it, but that would have busted the Five Minute Friday rules, eh? So, yup, welcome to my mind and our week – heh!
Yeah for real and laughter that spills over into Tuesday.
I love that.
So very true! There is beauty in being real and so often, that is exactly what the people around us want and need to hear… there is something so refreshing about hearing another mother’s REAL week and seeing yourself in her.
And because you wrote down this real life in 10 or 15 years you will be able to talk about what was real. All because you took five minutes one Friday to write out the real. :)
what’s real is real… but i hope next week is brighter… or at least… cleaner!
Amen to the cleaner!! Yes, please.
I’ve thought about linking up for a while now, but just did for the first time today! Love this idea. I just started a new blog as a outlet for just writing and this is my first post!
Thanks for this. And your post was great. My kids are 5, 2 and 8 months. So much of my answers to “how are you?” revolve around little bodily functions.
Yay you Janice for joining us!
Loved this post – so true.
Wolfie is so cute! I love little Beagles!
What an adorable puppy! I miss having a dog – we had them on the farm but I must admit, I love my cat – she’s so real :)
being real is really hard. often i doubt people really want to know how i am really doing, as if it would be too much for them. it definitely is a journey and thanks for the encouragement to keep taking it.
my recent post: how to pray with boldness…
Have I told you that you model real so beautifully? Really. Thanks, Lisa-Jo.
LOVE THIS PROMPT. Funny, just what I needed to write out. Thank you.
I loved this post. I have always struggled with letting my guard down and I know that transparency is so much more effective in relationship building and in helping other with their needs as well. Blogging has helped me to do that. It has actually spilled over into my “real” life and I am becoming more myself, the me that’s inside.
I have been pondering joining in your Five Minute Friday for months. I finally wrote my first “contribution” today, and I look forward to more. “Real” is a great topic, and like you pointed out, you have to be real to have real friends. :)
I was having trouble with the “linky”, but I noticed someone else said that, too. So if mine did not complete, hopefully it will next time. Looking forward to connecting!
awwww wolfie is soooo cute,i am happy for you and your family for the adition.i love the topic real and yours words very touching
Thanks for this. People have started telling me I’m “transparent.” I think I like it, but it sometimes ruffles my feathers. It makes me wonder if that’s just a nice way to say “over-sharing.” But I think mostly they mean it nicely. And one thing is sure…at least people will know what they’re getting, and if I happen to “over-share” sometime, at least SOME woman out there will know she’s not alone.
Attended home school convention today. Was challenged to be real with my kids. Even though I know they know – that is hard. Very convicted. The speaker said they can smell hypocrisy – then she sniffed. True. I think about my parents. A need to be real covers more than just other mothers and their encouragement, but everyone our lives touch. It is seeming more and more vital every day. I am beginning to see clearly the fog of lies that the Enemy would like for me to believe, for all of us to believe. How am I to eat the humble pie?
I love that you picked REAL as the word for this week. It was on my heart all week and on Thursday I ended up writing a pretty long post (longer than 5 minutes, so I’m not linking up here) about what it would look like to be messy grace real online…matching up more with how my life is in real life. It is sitting in my draft box as I pray about what it might lead to and if it is the Lord’s will that I post it, or whether it was simply meant to be prayer reflection time!
Thanks again, Lisa-Jo, for the way you’ve brought real to the front of my mind this week.
Blessings,
Lisa
Did you ever imagine you would have 182 women linking up to Five Minute Friday?! Amazing! Thanks so much for hosting it and allowing the rest of us to join in the fun:)
Love the concept of this challenge, and don’t know how I’ve missed it for so long! weird.
With a house full of grands – it’s going to be hard to find 5 minutes of quiet on a Friday to do this, but I’m making it a goal. I’ve missed this week…maybe next. I’m all about REAL, so it will be easy. :)
Love your heart, sister in Christ!!
Wonderful post. Now the GOOD NEWS about constipation in children AND we adults: plums. Yes. Plums…those juicy, sweet, soft, squishy yummy things that are hard to eat just one or two. They taste like God’s Candy! And if you’ll chew and swallow one or two each and every day along with drinking plenty of water? No-More-Constipation. Ever. Amen.
Oh, how I laughed at the pizza box line!