On Fridays a bunch of brave writers gather here to all spend 5 collective minutes writing on a single prompt.
Here’s how it all got started, back story, details and all. The short version is:
1. Write for 5 minutes flat for pure unedited love of the written word. (On your blog or in the comments).
2. Link back here and invite others to join in {you can grab the button code in my blog footer}.
3. Go leave some comment props for the five minute artist who linked up before you.
It’s a great way to catch your breath at the end of a long week.
OK, here’s the prompt, give me your best five minutes on the word:
She
GO
She had a seat open next to her and I slipped into it like a palm into the hand of a friend. She wears her dark hair and freckles like so many layers of familiar welcome. Like a note card or gift snuck into your purse, she will warm you from the inside. She makes room for me. Like she always does. Like pulling her chair to one side, shuffling her bag under her seat, calling me between work and daycare, remembering to write cards, saying the words of encouragement and pulling bits and pieces of her day to offer like so much broken bread for the weary women who mother on in between a thousand other deadlines.
She makes room for her friends in her life.
Deliberately, purposefully, tenderly and with generosity.
Like her handwriting, her loops of love curve out between creased edges of years shared back and forth until they are dog-eared with familiarity. She plans and reminds you that planning is good because when else will you just exhale the excuses and pick up the phone and call the woman who’s been weighing heavy on your mind for the better part of a long week.
There is nothing small about choosing to connect.
She will look at you over a hamburger with jalepenos so hot they have you coughing your way toward the ice water before you hear how she is suggesting you grow stronger. She is quietly telling you that there are new ways to be brave. And you already knew it but you didn’t want to know and it’s over the sweet potato fries that are not what you thought they would be that you learn you can be better at what you love.
You can love better.
You can write braver.
And she can do this because she’s along for the journey. She’s part of the team and we can none of us do brave things when we turn around and discover we’re the only ones who’ve got our backs. We need people. We need more than the voices in our own heads. We need cards and notes and cursive handwriting that peels back the sticky confusion and reminds us of the label that only really matters. That sisterhood of grace.
STOP
PS: If you’re reading in an email, just click over and come join us.
Oh Lisa-Jo. You paint a picture with your words. They are captivating and encouraging!
What a blessing to have such a woman in your life! Glad to be back in the community this week. :)
It’s great to have a woman like that in your life…and also the jalapeno’s. “her loops of love curve out between creased edges of years shared back and forth until they are dog-eared with familiarity. ” A great line!
You speak in words my heart understands. “There is nothing small about choosing to connect.”, indeed! Love that. What a beautiful 5 minutes, Lisa-Jo!
That was the phrase that caught me as well. Nothing small indeed. Great reminder to reach out.
Every single week, your posts are so beautiful. thank you so much for sharing with us!
Jessica
http://mybeautifulli.blogspot.com/2013/09/five-minute-friday-she.html
Yes, to a “sisterhood of grace”…so glad you have such dear friends, Lisa Jo:)
This was my first time participating in the 5 minute Friday….love the idea!! It was fun to just type the first thing that came to mind. I have also been so encouraged by reading others. Thank you all for sharing! I look forward to next week! Thanks Lisa Jo for having and leading such an encouraging site. I have my superhero cape on as well…with 3 boys in my house I have to be prepared for anything! :) ~Blessings to you all!
Reading what you write is like unwrapping a present slowly, savoring the moment, knowing there is such treasure to be discovered. Thank you.
Thank you for hosting Lisa Jo! You are such a beautiful writer.
Sisterhood … that wonderful thing I love.
Thanks for hosting this unique party.
Once again your words are like honey for my soul.
Cheers,
Leah
Makes me want to go grab coffee with my girlfriends
Lisa Jo, what a lovely post. I was gifted with 9 sisters and several “front line” girlfriends over the years. I thought of them as I read your post. How true it is that, “We need people. We need more than the voices in our own heads. We need cards and notes and cursive handwriting that peels back the sticky confusion and reminds us of the label that only really matters. That sisterhood of grace.” Blessings to you.
I love friends who can inspire us and challenge us so honestly!
“That sisterhood of grace” – I’m so grateful for that. For the community I have in real life. For the community that you’ve helped grow here online. Blessed by your writing again and thankful to be part of this beautiful group.
I love this! Yes!!!
I am completely stumped by this one! I got nothin! :) My nine-year old rocked it though. I mentioned the word and she goes, “I’ve got the best tongue-twister I read for that one!” and she started spouting off this super-long poem about a she-toad! She grabbed 2 sheets of paper and wrote it out BY MEMORY so we scanned it and linked it up! http://desperatehomeschoolers.com/2013/09/20/maggies-thoughts-on-she-five-minute-friday/
Thanks for a word prompt that has been making me laugh over and over again! Have a great week!
Tina
Wow. Beautiful post. This week, mine look like someone who doesn’t know how to write. Oh well, there’s always next week.
**looks** dadgum it!
This was a powerful springboard. I sat and wrote and was sad and happy at the same time.
I love this post for many reasons, but mostly for its vulnerability. And because I fell in love with your friend, for you poured grace upon her, and that’s such a gift!
I quoted you on Facebook. That was profound.. “There is nothing small about choosing to connect.”
That was so beautiful!!! I loved it all, but this part – “We need people. We need more than the voices in our own heads. We need cards and notes and cursive handwriting that peels back the sticky confusion and reminds us of the label that only really matters. That sisterhood of grace” – just really spoke to me today.
I need to be a better friend, be more of an active part of this “sisterhood of grace.”
Thank you so much for everything you do & the gorgeous way you write that reaches women everywhere.
Here is mine for SHE – “Gorgeous Chaos”
http://wendytate.wordpress.com/2013/09/20/gorgeous-chaos/?preview=true&preview_id=103&preview_nonce=a55a7b56a2&post_format=standard
Loved that post. Thank you – now I’ll go call the couple friends that I have like that are just like what you wrote about, and I”ll be that friend too – love it. The sisterhood of grace – that’s going to stick!
Tammara in Canada
http://tammaymay.blogspot.ca/2013/09/she.html
Lisa-Jo! Your writing is a beautiful basket woven of grace, brave words, and love that we can gather fragrant blooms from what you share from the depths of your heart. Thank you for the ever encouraging reminders to reach out and connect more generously, write braver and love better. I always love your Friday fives and marvel at how you spin such wonder in a few minutes.
She debated for awhile whether she should enter her daughter’s room. One glance at her alarm clock; the red numerals blinked–!:45. Her daughter was restless tonight. What to do? God, tell me what should I do? She was terrified, but stayed put. The numerals on the clock: 2:05. Her daughter, quiet, too quiet. She held her breath, still debating whether she leave the safety of her bedroom and confront her daughter. She had found enough broken razor blades in the dryer along with blood stained wash cloths to put her on guard. The clock blinked–6:15. She arose from her bed, easing her bedroom door open, then sneaked a peek at her daughter, asleep–one arm dangling over the edge of her bed, not scratched, but how to see the other arm. She froze as her daughter rolled over. The other arm came to view–and no scratches
Later that day–the picture: the arm–blood dripping from the wrist.
Joyce, my heart aches and whispers a prayer to Heaven. For you or whoever this Mama is.. and for all the daughters out there, countless, feeling lost and broken and bleeding.
She……..
Is the dream I have dreamt over a life time
Is the foundation to build a solid life upon
Is the moon and all the stars in the heavens above
Is the inspiration to improve my spelling and grammar
Is intelligent, funny and sexy
Is a dream …….. I hope to being to reality
WOW, Mike. You’re already trying to BE a good man for her before you meet her! Our world needs more willing to take such personal responsibility! This will be one blessed lady; I pray she will recognize it in you when she finds you:)
Thank you
I believe I have found her, but as the old saying goes, “It takes two to tango”. I hope by the end of the evening, the last dance will be ours.
Love your post sis! First time to join Five Minute Friday :)
Welcome, Miss Mommy Marlyn!))
SHE… broke my tough tom.boy heart wide open. I thought I wanted one like me. I planned a rough and tumble life filled with the mixing of mud pies in the back yard and then the crumbling of said mud pies, now dried and hardened by the sun, into ammunition for the inevitable dirt clod wars which would ensue.
Oh, and we did make mud pies, but she was none… and then again all that I expected. She was sensitive and innately in touch with her creativity. She began to teach me to let her dream; in the process I began to learn to dream again, too. She was, in fact, more like me than I knew: the fuller, more compassionate, emoting, creative me.
But life happened; and I left her, even while under the same roof, I wasn’t there. The SHE in ME was too busy trying to not feel all of the messy everythings right out in the open. I thought I was protecting her; them. But even so…
She’s becoming a young woman now, and I’ve only begun to forgive myself. But I get it now. I am tough despite my tears. I can be both determined and a day-dreamer. I AM woman, but not everyone need hear me roar. Quieter doesn’t have to mean weak. Maybe it just means wise. Then sometimes, wisdom shouts loud indeed. I pray she is learning the strength of femininity; I pray she’s seeing something different in me.
I repeatedly tried to shut it back down, all the blossoming of the SHE in me; but no more. I even tried to shut it down in her. I’m sorry. I’m not sure she can understand how sorry, until it’s her turn. But this time I’ll be prepared. When it’s her turn, she will have someone in her corner to tell her it’s okay to cry; that love and anger and sadness and jubilation and scathing defeats and glorious victories, and being ALL of who she is in the process… It’s all part of the Becoming of life. And I pray she’ll understand. That she will forgive. But come what may, SHE will have ME.
Thank you for this practice in writing. I’m just joining for the first time and am inspired and encouraged. AndI love you chose “She” as the prompt for today, not because I was able to write anything profound, but because I love women and the beauty which comes when we “make room for the women in our lives.” I’m not sure my linky worked as I’m new at this, but either way, thank you for providing this space for creativity to flow and women to connect.
http://www.adriennegraves.com/2013/09/an-exercise-in-writing.html
Your link seems to work fine, I spotted your picture in the linkies above :)
Sometimes it takes a while to load your own picture, and has an ‘X’ until it loads :)
hi! i heard about this from Tsh, am excited to join in for the first time! I loved it!
She looked into the mirror, and it seemed like the first time she had seen herself clearly in the reflection. Everything in that moment stopped. The clarity in her mind rang out loud. She knew she needed help. The tears streamed down as though for first time, as tears of hope and not of despair.
The acknowledgement of failure was undeniably painful but at the same time if felt like the cloud had lifted. The path way seemed clearer, she felt unburdened. She was open to the road ahead.
Welcome Stephanie! Hope you join today as well :) I love doing Lisa-Jo’s five minute fridays…
Love what you wrote, it sounds so vulnerabel and so freeing! xx
Hi! There is a red “X” in front of the number on my link above. Is there another step I need to do in order to link up properly? New to this :) Thanks!
I love this. Beautiful! Great imagery. I am so happy I found this blog. I did a writing group with 3 friends for a year and then moved and have missed it so much . Thank you!
http://bellesbazaar-heather.blogspot.com/2013/09/she.html
Lisa Jo, thanks for showing the importance of sisterhood with your words! I might be tired or I might just be a girl but it gets me a little emotional ;)
Cursive handwriting, choosing to connect, bringing along a loaf of fresh baked bread. Going for that today!
Seem to have linked up wrong yesterday, so I’ll just put my link in the comments :)
http://omily.me/she
“There is nothing small about choosing to connect.” Beautiful. Thanks for these words and this opportunity to connect!
I’m several weeks late with mine, so I’ll link it here: http://shellyroder.blogspot.com/2013/10/she.html
It is appropriate time to make some plans for the future and it’s time to be happy.
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