Photo: Stephen Forte
In the slight pause between
Flapping up,
Flapping down,
Live the breath
And the lift
That propel
To carry on.
For the Photo for the Week challenge: Birds
In Flight
Month: January 2019
Reflecting On Reflection
Photo: Inbar Asif
Sky and clouds
Take a swim
As day fills
To the brim,
And the light
Lets you know:
As above
So below.
For the Sunday Stills challenge: Reflect
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Forgotten Foundations
Photo: Ofir Asif
“Will he come back?” Leah peered over the wall.
Rachel pulled her younger sibling back into the shade.
“Will he?” Leah pressed.
“I don’t know,” Rachel’s voice caught. She coughed to hide her fear. She’d break if her sister became frightened. It would make everything too real.
She didn’t know where they were. A car ride preceded a long hike into the desert and the nap in the ruins. “Best thing during the heat of the day,” Dad said.
He was gone by the time they woke, deserted like forgotten stones.
For Sammi’s Weekend Writing Prompt: Foundations in 91 words
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Sailed Horizon
Photo: Na’ama Yehuda
I will paddle into sunlight
Where the ocean
Kisses sky,
Where the sailboats’
Neat triangles
Patch the blue
With bits of pie.
For Nancy Merrill’s Photo A Week Challenge
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Floored
Photo: Smadar Halperin-Epshtein
Not a rug
But a floor
You’ll be floored
To adore
As you find
Even more
To marvel
Galore.
Photo: Smadar Halperin-Epshtein
For the Tuesday Photo Challenge: Floor
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Not Minor
Photo: Adi Rozen-Zvi
You hold on in the mountains
Where the way of life you had fled
To protect
Has become
Tied into tourists arriving:
Some to gawk
Others to try and learn a bit about
Your rich traditions,
The pain and pride,
The dignity and patient ways,
The complicated significance
Of who you are
And may wish to remain
And how it is bound into the realities
Of avenues still open to you
In a country where you are
Curios and assets,
As well as precious human beings
Full of life and memories,
And to me rare less in your numbers
Than in the profound window
You open into the uniqueness of
Each one of us
And the minority we are or can be
At any time
To some.
For the Friday Foto Fun challenge: Minorities
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Out Of Shape?
Photo: Chagit Moriah-Gibor
If you are
Out of shape
Worry none
Worry naught,
For a log’s now
A bench
Where a rest can be
Sought.
For Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Geometric shape
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The Fence
Photo: © Russell Gayer
“We don’t go There,” Mama always warned. “Ever.”
“There” was beyond the fence. Where the embankment locked in perpetual shadows and where the yellow cliffs rose shining in the sun and where the scary things lived and mortal danger was certain to find you.
As a child I never questioned the relative flimsiness of the wire fence and how it possibly prevented such pervasive awfulness from invading the compound.
It wasn’t until much later that it occurred to me to wonder whether both the fence and its electric bite were there to keep us in.
For Rochelle’s Friday Fictioneers
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Wrap It Up In Gratitude
Photo by Carl Attard on Pexels.com
Me being a softy for all manner of new beginnings, wrapping ups, looking back and facing forward, I’ve decided to participate in this lovely idea of a blog-to-blog blanket of gratitude, friendship, and community. Want to join? Read how here (also, thank you, Dale – for the idea).
The short of it? Set a timer for 15 minutes and let loose: write, detail, list, describe and put your gratitude into words. No edits needed. No wrong answers. No test at the end. Nothing to lose and everything to gain.
If you are so inclined, read my unedited, uncensored Gratitude Wrap Up — here I Go!
- Family. A blessing even wordy-me hasn’t enough words for.
- Friends. For all the gifts of laughter and joy.
- Joy. Because life is so much richer with it.
- Life. Without it, there would be nothing.
- This planet. Without it there would be no life as we know it.
- Oxygen. I adore the stuff. Can’t imagine living without it.
- Water. The obvious stuff, but also in rivers and oceans. Especially the beach.
- Waves. In the sea. In the ebb and flow of life. In the ups and downs of everything. In hellos and even in the sweet sorrow of goodbyes (for there had to have been a hello for there to be a goodbye).
- Light and the gift of sight.
- Colors. In nature. In emotion. In people. In energy. In food. In flowers.
- Flowers. Not so much the cut ones in bouquets as the ones still living, blooming loudly without shame or apology.
- Apologies. For making room for amends and for allowing humility, humanity, empathy, fallibility, and compassion.
- Compassion. I’d put it first. But this is unedited and … it really fits everywhere. Any day. Any time.
- Time. To live. To breathe. To be. To learn. To write.
- Learning. For there is so much more to know!
- Writing. Because, well, it is like breathing.
- Breathing. It’s lovely. Also, see #6 …
- Children. For everything they are and the hope they hold and the laughter they bring and the teachers they are.
- Hope. The hope you feel. The hope you know. The hope you may be able to give someone, someday. The hope you might’ve forgotten but now remember.
- Memories. So many of those. Some I might’ve wished to never know, but since they are part of me, I’d rather know than not, for they are all a part of me and made me into who I am today.
- Today. Every day. There would be not past or present or future without it.
- Tomorrow. For exemplifying hope by working on becoming a today and by that showing trust in what can be.
- Trust. For the depth of connection it allows, especially as it is never something I take for granted, having known betrayal.
- Connection. No person is truly an island. We need our shores to touch those of others, through waves and flow and ebb and sun and rain and heart and sound.
- Sound. For the gifts of hearing, listening, and understanding.
- Comprehension. For this world is complicated enough, and I am grateful to know some meaning.
- Meaning. For life. For love. For connection. For work.
- Work. Because to live is to work. Not just in what one defines as a job, but in what one can define their life’s work to be, and the glimpses of the plan.
- Plans. Love them. Sometimes I am not sure I feel the love, but I know I do, someplace, or I’d have never made the plans …
- Love.
- Love.
- Love.
- Repetition. Some things get better the more you know them. The more you do them. The more time you spend in them. They improve with age.
- Aging. Seriously. I’ve earned every wrinkle. I’ve labored in the sun for every freckle. I’ve stitched every bit of wisdom, sometimes from tatters of harder times to make a quilt of who I am.
- Being me. Not because I’m so special, but because we each are. And I’m happy for the opportunity to be me. Just because (also, I’m a limited edition. They broke the mold after making me, so it’ll be a waste to not make the most of it even if just because I’m super curious to see how I’ll unfold).
- Curiosity. Can’t help it. Don’t want to change it. Wonder where it’s all coming from.
- Wonder. It keeps me on my toes. It keeps my ‘awwww’ and ‘wow’ and ‘whoa’ muscles working.
- Muscles. I’ve got the skinny-Minnie edition of those, so I’m grateful for every fiber: they keep me upright, they keep my fingers typing (yeah!). They keep my heart pumping.
- Heart. In all its manifestations. Even broken hearts are better than being heartless. I’m so so grateful to have heart and to know so many people who have golden ones.
- Gold. Not the metal, but the color – in the sunrise, in the sunset, in the sparkle, in the light.
- Sunrise and sunset. They never fail to quicken my heart and expand my soul.
- Soul. It’s older than this body. It’s wiser than this life. It’s been hanging around this universe a while, and it’s been traveling in a little cluster with other souls, most of whom I totally adore.
- The universe. Don’t understand it. Can’t grasp the size of it. Not sure I really ‘get’ how it went ‘bang’ and where it is expanding or collapsing into, but I sure am grateful for it. May even be grateful for extraterrestrials. Come to think of it, I bet I already know a few such travelers.
- Travel. To new-to-me and known-to-me places. It expands my mind and nourishes my spirit.
- Nourishment. In all its forms but especially in its most basic, which I know so many in this world still struggle to have access to, even as there should be more than enough for all of us. Having healthy food isn’t something to take for granted.
- Health. This, too, in all its forms and in its most fundamental. I’ve been blessed to know both health and some of its challenges. It keeps me grateful. It keeps me aware.
- Awareness. Being conscious is a good thing. Seriously. I know what I’m talking about.
- Talking. I’m SO grateful for the gift of gab. I’d implode if I didn’t have words.
- Words. Language. Communication. My elements. My calling. My profession. My path.
- Journey. Especially that of life. With all of you who cross my path and join my path and whose path I am allowed to join. I’m so so grateful.
Want to make your own stream-of-consciousness gratitude list? Follow the link below.
For the 2018 Annual attitudes of gratitude list
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2019 Blessings
Photo: Na’ama Yehuda
May this year be as calm as you need it to be
As adventurous as your spirit requires
As hopeful as your heart can hold
As happy as pure joy
As healthy as is doable
As satisfying as your widest dreams
As filled with laughter as your belly can tolerate
As nourishing as warm hugs
As loving as your heart desires
(And then some
Because we can all use
Extra of love).
And … while we’re at it:
May this year bring an end to what no longer sustains you
May what drains you move on, or change
May hurts heal
May grief ease
May frustration untangle till truth’s in the clear.
May worry turn action
May stagnation find pace
May you be all you wanted to be
And a bit more still, just in case …
Blessings be to you,
Na’ama
Na'ama Yehuda 
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