JusJoJan26 Day 9: Celebrate

/ Liz H-H / 4 Comments

January 9 – “Celebrate”. Many Thanks to Wendy for today’s prompt, as we take a moment or two each day this month to reflect on words that come from the community. And thanks to Linda G Hill for getting us organized!

(Part 3 of 3, continued from Stumble…)

Winter softened into Spring, Summer strolled by with bare shoulders and snapping flip flops, finally trading off the lazy slap of summer fun for the aromatic crunch of boots on fallen leaves. Squirrel Bird Woman was still feeding her charges, and it turned out that she had classes in many of the same buildings I haunted, as I grinded through my graduate coursework and final thesis. Not that I followed her around; we just walked many of the same campus paths. As my graduate program progressed, so did the number and mileage of walks I took.

Her range of feeding the animals was more extensive than Joe and I had realized. Piles of seeds were spread every quarter of a mile on the grass beside the sidewalks. She made her rounds early mornings and afternoons now, somehow refilling her buckets in between. Like me, she must have lived in one of the tiny apartments near campus. I knew better than to interrupt her efforts with words, but she did offer up a smile now and again. Progress.

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JusJoJan26 Day 6: Intentional

/ Liz H-H / 1 Comment

January 6 – “Intentional”. Many Thanks to Dan for today’s prompt, as we take a moment or two each day this month to reflect on words that come from the community. And thanks to Linda G Hill for getting us organized!

(Part 1 of 3)

We knew she’d pass this way at just this time, a bucket full of seed for the birds in one hand and weighed down by an overstuffed backpack. Once she’d made sure the wildlife—well, CITY wildlife—were fed, she’d stop by our near-campus coffee shop for a small black coffee, which she took outdoors to watch the birds and squirrels scratch through what she’d left for them. She’d sit on the hard bench in the campus greenspace, tiny woman with a tight smile, pull a crust of bread out of the side pocket of her Goodwill wool jacket, and join them in their feast.

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Watcher Doings 24

/ Liz H-H / 16 Comments
juicy tangerine wedges

Join us for a weekly blog party in Six Sentence Stories, hosted by Denise and attended by some mighty fine, fun folk. Prompt word=FORCE. Read, write and come back for more SIX SENTENCE STORIES.   (Link goes active Wed night).

Montay found safety in the cottage’s shed, just managing to slither his way through the woodpile stacked and placed against the east wall, and into the shed itself through a small hole near its base. In the coolness of the northern evening, he was subject to the vicissitudes of the cold-blooded form he’d chosen to transform into; add that to his bad planning to shapeshift into a snake blinded by molt and he was screwed.

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JusJoJan26 Day 4-Arms

/ Liz H-H / Leave a comment

January 4 – “Arms”. Many Thanks to  Cheryl for today’s prompt, as we take a moment or two each day this month to reflect on words that come from the community. And thanks to Linda G Hill for getting us organized!

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I wake up in heavy darkness this morning to what sounds like airplanes flying low in the sky. Steady drone in multivoice, for what seems like a long time. Swimming upwards out of sleep, I remember the old munitions site a few miles away, and that this thought crosses the deeper pools of my consciousness whenever the U.S. is mired in things that they shouldn’t. Or shouldn’t be, in the way that we do. The old munitions plant, long dismantled, but still haunted, and undeveloped into something more hopeful, is a few miles and a quarter of a century away.

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JusJoJan26 Day 2-Magnify

/ Liz H-H / 4 Comments

January 2 – “Magnify”. Many thanks to Barbara for today’s prompt, as we take a moment or two each day this month to reflect on words that come from the community. And thanks to Linda G Hill for getting us organized!

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Joseph stared at his beautifully plated entrée, the seasonal speciality at the high-end restaurant his wife had begged to visit to celebrate her birthday.

He’d expected and budgeted for what he knew would be a high-priced meal, assumed the food would be the chef-architect’s finest designs. He’d hoped for flavor and texture that would knock his socks off, even if he couldn’t quite identify what was placed before him by the wait-person with the Inspector Clouseau accent.

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JusJoJan Day 1-Mindfulness

/ Liz H-H / Leave a comment

January 1 – “Mindfulness”. Many thanks to Emily for today’s prompt, as we take a moment or two each day this month to reflect on words that come from the community. And thanks to Linda G Hill for getting us organized!

It snowed this morning. Again. I know it was this morning, probably after 7 am, because I didn’t see fresh tracks from the twin does that cross my back yard and jump over the waist-high fence that keeps our human neighborliness neighborly. The deer regularly stroll through before everybody gets up to start the bustle of their day. Cars running, lights snapping on in the winter dark, thump of young children’s feet on the thin wood floors, the jingle and crunch of a dog or cat eating and making music with their bowl of kibble. Meanwhile, I’m mindful in my dreams as I remember how busy life was when the kids were young.

Now they’re grown and I’m a gramma.

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