fiction

Get Me to the Church On Time

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“I got to be there in the morning,” he sang, “spruced up and lookin’ in me prime.”

He had slept through his alarm and his head was pounding. Splashing water on his face helped a little. Singing helped more. He couldn’t believe that he still remembered the words he had sung fifty years ago on a high school stage.

He put on the starched shirt and the dark pants with their crisp ironed crease up each leg.

As he stood in front of the mirror, humming, he tied his tie. The knot was perfect.

“Pull out the stopper. Let’s have a whopper,” he sang, and eyed the bottle on the sideboard. One glass wouldn’t hurt. It might even help.

He sipped and sang and combed his hair. “Ding dong! the bells are gonna chime!”

He laughed to himself. The drink had helped. He did a little dance-shuffle out the door, singing, “Kick up a rumpus, but don’t lose the compass, and get me to the church, get me to the church, be sure and get me to the church on time!”

When he pulled up in front of the church, he knew he was late. They were just exiting, the pall-bearers carrying the casket down the stairs.

“You god-damned drunk,” his sister hissed. “Couldn’t even be here on time for her funeral.”

This is my submission for the Unicorn Challenge. The challenge has only two rules: 1) no more than 250 words, and 2) base it on the photo prompt.

I looked at that photo and thought, that’s probably some well-known landmark in Scotland or Europe (certainly NOT the US) that I don’t recognize. I am so untraveled.

However, I have spent the better part of my week preparing for a funeral at the church where I work (my 2nd job). Plus I love musicals.

This is from “My Fair Lady” — and he’s getting ready for a wedding, not a funeral.

poetry

Elbowroom

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Go into a crowd
The hustle-bustle-jostle
Of people – no – not for me

Sit beside a lake
Alone – a loon dives for fish
Eagle circles high – I sigh

This is my submission for the W3 prompt this week. POW Suzanne challenged us to write a poem in a Japanese form with the theme of Yutori — a Japanese word that means, among other things, elbowroom.

I have to confess that I don’t really feel confident about Japanese forms, so I read through the book: Japanese Poetry Forms by James P. Wagner (Ishwa) and Nick Hale that Suzanne included and settled on The Sedoka. Here’s the explanation of the form:

The Sedoka
Sometimes known as a whirling head poem is
similar to a later form of Japanese poetry called the
mondo from the Zen practice of rapid question-answer
between a master and a student or, more frequently,
between two lovers. Often the answer would be in
nonverbal form such as pointing to a natural object.
The sedoka can often be considered the combination of
two or three katuata. A sedoka is written by only 1
poet and rather than question-answer, the 2 stanzas are
often parallels, sometimes taking the form of an
internal dialogue or contemplative dilemma. This verse
can be found as far back as the 6th century.
The sedoka is:
 2 stanzas of 3 lines each
 19 syllables or less
 often 5-7-7, sometimes 5-7-5 is used for each
stanza.
 the stanzas should be parallel to each other, or
in some ways opposites without being directly
contradictory.

You can see that I am a little partial to the Celtic forms that like internal rhyme and alliteration.

Life

Logic

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I know, I know — it’s ONE liner Wednesday, but I’m going to give you two quotes because they walk hand-in-hand.

“People who lean on logic and philosophy and rational exposition end by starving the best part of the mind. ”

William Butler Yeats

Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.

Albert Einstein

Writing

Musings on American English vs British

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I’m fascinated by the minute spelling differences between American English and British.

For instance, on the front of the bulletins we hand out at church, it says, “Thank you for worshipping with us today.” A month or two ago, Father brought them to me and asked me to change it to “worshiping.” Brits use 2 p’s; Americans prefer 1.

Or do we?

Between us, I think 2 p’s makes more sense. The “i” is short, so we should double the consonant. Worshiping looks like the root word should “worshipe”. Yeah, no, not a fan.

Then there’s the whinge-whine connection. Brits whinge; Americans whine. In this instance, the words have slightly different meanings. Whinge means “complain persistently and in a peevish or irritating way,” but whine is the actual noise — that high-pitched complaining cry.

So when today’s word for JusJoJan was “pernickety” — whereas I only knew the word “persnickety” — I should have guessed that it was the old Brit-American issue. They both mean a fussy, particular attention to detail. But British English is the older spelling. Americans had to go and change it.

Why? Usually Americans are dropping letters, like the whole worshipping thing. In the case of persnickety, they added a letter!

I like that we dropped that unnecessary ‘u’ from words like color and neighbor. Shorter, more practical, good.

Then there’s biscuit vs cookie, or football vs soccer, torch vs flashlight. (Seriously – a torch has fire leaping from it, right? If a flashlight is a torch, what’s a torch called?)

How about you? What words do you notice that are different?

books

12 months to read 12 books

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In a recent brief foray into Facebook, I happened to see this challenge: read twelve books in twelve months recommended by twelve friends.

Easy-peasy, right? Except I read very little fiction these days. I look at my current pile of books. I’m rereading Pascal’s Pensees. I’m starting over on Art & Fear by David Bayles and Ted Orland, a book I started years ago and never finished. Then I have unfinished books by John O’Donohue and Brian Doyle that I want to tackle. Again. I’m mostly stuck slowly reading thought-provoking books.

12 books in 12 months? I saw that and thought, Pshaw. Literally. That’s what I thought.

Except there’s this. In the post-election numbness, I stumbled across a years-old recommendation from a friend to read a young adult book. (Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow recommended by my friend Leah) I zippity-doo-dah-ed through that book and was glad I had.

The truth is I LOVE children’s books, early chapter books, and young adult books. 12 children’s books? Yes, that I could do.

So my question for you is, do you have a book you remember reading as a child that you loved? Or a book you recently read to your child or grandchild that you thought was amazing or even just worthwhile?

I’ll take the first twelve that I haven’t yet read and make a list for 2025.

family · Writing

Writer’s Blocks

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For Christmas I had asked for Writing Dice, dice with idea words written for inspiration. Prompts definitely help me write. My daughter went one step better and MADE me some (with the help of her husband’s 3D printer).

Today, this was my roll:

Prayer Joyful Limerick Sibling

Dear God, unto You I now pray
Though skies are cloudy and gray
Give a smile to my heart
’cause that’s a good start
For this to be a great day!

With one sister, three brothers I’m blessed
(I can’t tell you which one is best)
One’s deceased — and that’s sad —
Also – mom and dad –
So the estate now must be addressed

gratitude

TToT — January 4, 2025

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Ten things for which I have been thankful over this past week:

  1. New Year’s Eve games — If you didn’t get to play games with 5 year old New Year’s Eve, you missed out. We played Magnetic, which involved magnets and strategy, Hurry Up Chicken Butt, which is like Hot Potato with a twist, and The Sneaky, Snacky Squirrel, which had game pieces shaped like acorns. Betcha I had more fun than the people who got rained on in Times Square.
  2. Morning Reading — Here’s a quote from Art and Fear, By David Bayles — “…becoming an artist consists of learning to accept yourself, which makes your work personal, and in following your voice, which makes your work distinctive.”
  3. Best comment/conversation on my blog — with Kristin (Finding Eliza) following my Unicorn Challenge story “The Big House” —
    Kristin: Did he get away with it? If so, then what?
    Me: Ah, but that is the fun of a 250 word limit. Your imagination has to take over now.
    Kristin: Grandad and grandson go on to become the robin hood jewel thieves of whatever country they’re in. Stealing from the wealthy and starting a string of food pantries and soup kitchens for the down and out. Eventually they expand and buy big houses to house the homeless. The well known ballad “They did it for us” was based on them.
  4. New word learned: whinge. Whinge definition: British : to complain fretfully : whine (Thank you, CEAyr. I will TRY to stop whinging.)
  5. Sgeoil’s ode to the Sun
  6. Last night’s crescent moon with Venus very visible next to it.
  7. A difficult decision that I made. Once something is decided, it’s so much easier, right?
  8. A long swim on Thursday. Everything feels better after a swim – my hip and my psyche being most affected in a positive way.
  9. Cats — It’s so nice to be greeted when I walk in the door.
  10. Adam — one of my friends from the gym. He sent me this video of comedian that is one of his personal friends. It made me smile.

#TToT

fiction

The Big House

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He’s not sure when it began. From the time he was little Opa would show him around The Big House where he worked. It was such a fun place to explore with its secret chambers and hidden passages, big doors, tiny doors, alcoves and cavernous rooms.

One day his favorite stuffed animal disappeared. Opa led him up the sloping lawn to The Big House and pointed to a 3rd floor window. Tiger was looking out the window.

Opa said, “Your job is to rescue Tiger without anyone seeing you.”

He crept down passages and hide behind statues or large plants. He darted up the stairs. On the third floor, he counted doors like he had counted windows from the lawn. Once inside, he ran forward and grabbed Tiger. He repeated the stealth to exit.

Opa was so proud!

Tiger Rescue became their favorite game. Sometimes Tiger was in a bedroom, sometimes in a study. Once he was in the dining room and the servants were setting the table for dinner.

But he was good at it and rarely seen. When he was, the person usually smiled, patted him on the head, and didn’t question.

One day, he and Opa walked on the lawn but he didn’t see Tiger in any window.

“Today Tiger isn’t hiding. I want to play a trick on The Lady. In her room, on the dresser, is a necklace that’s very sparkly and has a big jewel. That’s the room,” he said, pointing to a window.

This is my submission to the Unicorn Challenge. If you want to participate, write a story inspired by the photo, 250 words max. Then, link it to the post like I did.

poetry

Ode to a New Daily Planner

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Oh 2025
You stretch before me
On unwritten pages
Clean
Fresh
Full of hope

I wrote a prayer in you
To start things off
Opening you
Pressing you flat

Birthdays and
Other reminders
Are scattered throughout
But I know
(as do you)
There is more to come

By December 31
You will be full
Of occasions
Good
Bad
Happy
Sad
Momentous
Minute

Life
In a book
Written by me

Dear 2025 planner
Come with me on my travels
Bear witness to my events
Remind me
Always
Of what is important

This is my response to this week’s W3 prompt: write an ode.

Life

When you make a cup of coffee…

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When you wash your hands, when you make a cup of coffee, when you’re waiting for the elevator – instead of indulging in thinking, these are all opportunities for being there as a still, alert presence.

Eckhart Tolle
A photo from my trip to British Columbia in February 2024 (which was one of the highlights of 2024)

It’s the first day of 2025, a day when we have a fresh start on a new year. 365 days lie ahead, unspoiled, full of potential and hope.

I’m one of those people who DOES make resolutions and here are mine.

  1. Post here more regularly. Tentative schedule
    • Wednesday — one-liner Wednesday — sponsored by Linda Hill. Today’s word is “coffee.”
    • Thursday — W3 (poem) — sponsored by The Skeptic’s Kaddish. This week’s challenge: an ode.
    • Friday — Unicorn Challenge — new photo posted each week. Write no more than 250 based on it.
    • Saturday — TToT — Ten Things of Thankful
    • Sunday — Writing Dice — luck of the roll — a gift from my daughter — I’ll post pictures when the time comes.
    • Monday — writer’s choice
    • Tuesday — writer’s choice
  2. Be present in the moment. See quote from Eckhart Tolle.
  3. Cut back on things that aren’t important.
  4. Invest in things that are important.
  5. Clean the house.