Seeking Silver Linings

December 30, 2020December 30, 2020Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Current events, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Reflections, Things Kids Say, Trauma and Development, Writing Tags: 100WordChallenge, Childhood Adversity, City Sky, Clouds, Coping skills, Crisis, Family, Flash Fiction, Friday Fictioneers, Micro-fiction, Silver Lining 55 Comments

Photo: Na’ama Yehuda

It wasn’t about giving up. It was about silver linings.

Or about looking for them. At least.

Better than seeing the mess inside her mother’s house. The junk that kept arriving, accumulating, suffocating. Better than listening to the endless arguments between her parents. Or to the cries of the neighbor from across the street. The police there every other week. Mostly on payday, when the neighbor’s husband was drunk. Fancy neighborhood. Broken lives.

So, she curled up by the window, eyes to the sky, watching fluffy clouds drifting by.

Perhaps the silver lining will ride in on the next one.

For Rochelle’s Friday Fictioneers (I mean, how could I NOT participate when Rochelle chose to use one of my photos today?! Happy, healthy, and a BETTER 2021, everyone! And to all the children in homes-of-crisis: Hang in there, it gets better, you are worth it, you are seen!)

Watching

December 27, 2020Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Professional Development, Reflections, Speech Language Pathology, Trauma and Development, Writing Tags: CCC, Chronic illness, Disabilities, Flash Fiction, Grief, Loss, Micro-fiction, muscular dystrophy, Oceanside, parenting, Progressive 10 Comments

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“See there?”

Marie squinted against glare. “The windmills?”

“No.”

David’s finger shook along with his head, and Marie felt the wheelchair’s handles vibrate. The sorrow hit her, unexpected as always. Most days now she managed to surf life without being blindsided, but it was harder to do in this place, his favorite, where everything reflected the losses. His. Hers.

“The bird,” David insisted, his reedy voice robotic with timed inhalation.

His inflection was one of the first things to go, and its absence had robbed away a part of David that she’d adored from the moment he had first looked at her, dewy-eyed from birth, and mewled a symphony of baffled indignation.

“Ah, yes, the bird on the poles! I see it now,” she filled the space with words to compensate for his worsening inability to speak in sentences.

“Watching,” David exhaled, satisfied.

For the end? Marie silenced her sigh.

For Crispina‘s Crimson’s Creative Challenge

Note: Dedicated to all parents and caregivers, and to all who are navigating the throws of progressive illness. May you find peace, and space to breathe in, and may you know moments of joy and an abundance of love through life’s difficult path.

Back In Time

December 26, 2020Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Reflections, Writing Tags: Ancestry, Belonging, Creative writing, Flash Fiction, History, Micro-fiction, Science Fiction, Self Discovery, Time travel, Troglodyte, Weekend Writing Prompt 20 Comments

Photo: Ronan Furuta on Unsplash

After years of failure, ridicule, he was finally ready.

To find out the truth. About himself. About where he’d come from. Where he would’ve belonged.

He turned the dial. Held his breath. Grasped the handles. Stepped on the lever.

The world spun.

Time thumped.

A banshee screamed in his ear. Perhaps the wind. Perhaps his own voice.

When vertigo subsided, he swallowed bile. Inhaled. Opened his eyes.

A man in furs crouched near him. Spear in hand.

Boron’s heart flooded with relief and delight.

He knew it!

He was, down to his DNA, a troglodyte.

For Sammi’s Weekend Writing Prompt: Troglodyte in 95 words

Not Forgotten

December 23, 2020Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Life and love, Memoriam, Muse and Flow, Reflections, Writing Tags: 100WordChallenge, Creative writing, Flash Fiction, Friday Fictioneers, Letting go, Loss, Memoriam, Mentor, Micro-fiction, Tribute 39 Comments

It was his favorite saying, so of course it was the one they chose. Never mind that no one else would understand the meaning. “Others,” he’d say, “have their own stories to hoard or trim or bloat or be rid of.”

They knew that no matter how far Heaven was, he’d see this and smile.

He’d taught them to let go of what held them down.

“Gone!” he would announce, tossing fistfuls of dirt to the wind to aid the transformation. “You’re free of this. You can move on!”

His motto gleamed above the desert sand.

Gone, but not forgotten.

Photo prompt © Trish Nankivell

For Rochelle’s Friday Fictioneers

Waiting

December 19, 2020Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Current events, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Poetry, Reflections, Writing Tags: Creative writing, Current events, Emergency, hope, Hospital, Languid, Micro-fiction, Poetry, Surgery, Waiting, Weekend Writing Prompt, Worry 18 Comments

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(Photo: Martha Dominguez de Gouveia on Unsplash)

He drooped as hours

Lingered

Without any

News.

He tried to read but

Worry clogged his

Views.

He paced awhile but

Found his feet too heavy

As his hope grew

Weak.

The moments stretched

Their languid

Endless

Streak.

“It’s done,”

A soft voice filtered

To him

Through the mist.

“She’s resting comfortably.

So is your newborn son.”

For Sammi‘s Weekend Writing Prompt: Languid in 57 words

Elfie’s Solution

December 17, 2020December 18, 2020Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Funnies, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Reflections, Things Kids Say, Writing Tags: Aptitude, Attitude, CCC, Creative writing, Elf, Flash Fiction, Holidays, Just for fun, Micro-fiction, Siblings, Word Play 14 Comments

ccc110-elf CrispinaKemp

“Not every elf can be on a shelf.”

Elfie heard this all his life. From his teachers at the Santa Academy. From his parents, Elfonso and Elfinia. From his judgy Aunt Elfisia. And now from his insufferable brother Elfonso Junior (who everyone called EJ), who just had to rub in the fact that he had gotten into the EFS (Elves For Shelves) program, while Elfie did not.

“But what if I want to be an elf on a shelf?” Elfie protested.

“It’s not about what you want,” his mother scolded. “It is about your Efltitude Score.”

“…and,” EJ added with an elfin smirk, “as we all know, you don’t quite measure up.”

If it weren’t for his mother’s presence, Elfie would have tossed EJ under a reindeer.

Thinking of reindeer. And reins … gave him an idea.

No shelf? No problem.

He’d hang out as an elf by himself.

For Crispina‘s Crimson’s Creative Challenge

Unintended Consequences

December 16, 2020Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Current events, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Reflections, Writing Tags: 100WordChallenge, Allegory, End hate, Flash Fiction, Friday Fictioneers, Micro-fiction, No More Hate, Pluralism, Protection, Scarecrow, Tolerance 31 Comments

“This is the stuff of nightmares.”

Nina grinned and admired her handiwork. “This is the idea.”

Daniel shuddered. This thing was creepy even in full daylight. He could only imagine how it would appear in twilight or moonlight or through a flashlight’s beam. “Did you have to make it so KKK?”

Nina’s grin slipped and quivered but returned. “Not the intent, but perhaps the effect will nonetheless be meaningful.”

Daniel scratched his afternoon whiskers. Itchy stuff, all that growing up. “How so?”

“A dilapidated, pathetically-desperate-for-a-shower bully racist figure protecting a multi-racial, pluralistic graveyard is perhaps quite apt. Don’t you think?”

Photo prompt: © Sandra Crook

For Rochelle’s Friday Fictioneers

Winter’s Tread

December 15, 2020Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Life and love, Meditations, Muse and Flow, Poetry, Reflections, Writing Tags: cold, Creative writing, dVerse, Fireplace, Inglenook, Micro-fiction, Poetry, Quadrille, Untold Stories, Warmth, winter, Writing Challenge 28 Comments

(Photo: Stéphane Juban on Unsplash)

When the cold gripped hard

And pulled life from the sinews

Of the earth,

And when the wind screamed wild

Among the emptied branches

Overhead,

She’d seek the warm embrace

Of the inglenook’s fireplace

And write a book

Of summer’s heat

Inside her

Head.

For the dVerse quadrille poetry challenge: Inglenook

Not Long Now

December 12, 2020Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Current events, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Poetry, Reflections, Writing Tags: Creative writing, Current events, Facts Matter, Insecurity, It is time, Niggle, Not Okay, Poetry, Politics, Reality, Weekend Writing Prompt 20 Comments

(Photo: Wilhelm Gunkel on Unsplash)

He failed but would not let it go.

He would not let things rest.

He has to prod and press and woe

In niggling senseless tests.

He cannot accept evidence.

He contradicts all fact.

His weakness grows in petulance

Yet haggle seems he must.

A pity he’s so insecure.

His desperate noisome pouts.

Yet reason in most still endures

And his time will soon run out.

For Sammi‘s Weekend Writing Prompt: Niggle in 66 words

Not A Bird

December 10, 2020Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Reflections, Things Kids Say, Writing Tags: Beach, Beach combing, CCC, Discovery, Flash Fiction, friends, Micro-fiction, Mystery, Photo prompt, School assignment, Siblings 13 Comments

ccc109-1 CrispinaKemp

“Hey! At the bottom of the cliff to the right. What do you think this is?”

Lisa adjusted the focus on her binoculars. “Can’t tell. A bit of junk?”

They were supposed to be cataloguing the different bird species they could find along their stretch of beach, but the seagulls were tiresome, and the sandpipers were too fast, and the wind had whipped so much sand around that she would certainly be carrying another pound of it just in her hair. Lisa wanted to go home. She wanted a nice bath, dry clothes, and a hot cup of tea.

“Perhaps a miners’ rail box.” Deena, binoculars glued to her face and hair tucked under a maddeningly practical cap, seemed oblivious to the stinging sand or Lisa’s rumbling stomach.

“Not a bird,” Lisa tried.

“No, but sure is a mystery!” Deena rose and pointed at the narrow trail. “Let’s go investigate!”

For Crispina‘s Crimson’s Creative Challenge