Be Like Cabbage

December 31, 2018December 31, 2018Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Photography, Reflections, Writing Tags: advice, Bloom, Cabbage, flowers, FOTD, Metaphor, Nourishment, Photo Challenge, Photo prompt, Poetry, Practical thinking, winter, wisdom 16 Comments

Photo: Amitai Asif

“Be like a flower,” she said,

Wrinkles creasing like sun

‘Round her eyes.

“Be like cabbage, too!”

And she laughed

At my confusion and

Touched a calloused hand

To my cheek

For the umpteenth loving time.

“Bloom alone does not fill stomachs,”

She explained

And the years without

Flickered sad behind her smile

But did not interfere.

“Cabbage blooms as pretty as any,

Yet unlike most who wilt

At summer’s end,

It will hold goodness at the ready

To nourish you through winter.”

“Be like a flower, then,” she smiled.

“And like a cabbage, too.

For it will sustain you:

Bland or spiced or hot or cold

Until the snow melts

And you have lived to a new spring

And can, one day, grow old.”

For Cee’s FOTD challenge

Thankful Still

November 18, 2018Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Life and love, Meditations, Muse and Flow, Photography, Reflections, Writing Tags: Beach, Ebb and flow, Gratitude, Life Lessons, Meditation, Ocean, Poetry, Sunday Stills, Thankful, Thanksgiving, wisdom 4 Comments

Photo: Na’ama Yehuda

Thankful still for life’s living

Thankful still

For the hope

That each breath that’s drawn in

Can begin

And can bring.

Thankful still, if hadn’t always

For the ebb

And the flow

Of small joys and big sorrows

As they come

And they go

As we grow

And we know.

For the Sunday Stills Challenge: Thankful

Pensive Park

November 16, 2018Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Life and love, Meditations, Muse and Flow, Photography, Reflections, Writing Tags: Bucket List, KOC, Life Lessons, Meditation, Oddball, Pause, Photo Challenge, Photography, Poetry, Priorities, Take stock, Unusual, wisdom 6 Comments

Photo: Philip Coons

In a park, on a lawn, by a

Trail

This board aimless wander

Curtails,

And the question it

Raises

Brings along varied

Phrases.

What would your heart

Assign

If you saw such a

Sign?

For Kammie’s Oddball Challenge

Stories We Tell

September 3, 2018Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Photography, Reflections, Writing Tags: children, Creativity, Culture, Folklore, listening, parenting, Poetry, Stories, SYW, wisdom Leave a comment

Photo: Smadar Halperin-Epshtein

And the stories that we tell

To small ones under

Good tales’ spell

Become the fabric

That unveils

The yarns they’ll spin

Or might dispel.

For the SYW-Revisited Challenge

Tempestuous Times

July 30, 2018Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Current events, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Reflections, WordOfDayNY, Writing Tags: cleansing, Elders, hardship, History, hope, MerriamWebster, Persevere, Poetry, Tyranny, wisdom, WordOfDayNY, WordOfTheDay 2 Comments

Photo: cmurrey, Flickr

“These are tempestuous times,” she said

And her strong hands wrung the laundered sheets

To squeeze out suds

As she would want

To push out infiltrated evil.

“I’ve seen hardship before,” she stirred

The linens

In the boiling vat,

Simmering the despair

Till it foamed and evaporated

Into bleached hope.

“Wrong does not last,” she rinsed

And wrung

And shook

And hung

The wash

Till it fluttered

Free

To dry,

Only the barest of stains

Still visible

In the sun.

Merriam-Webster’s word for July 30, 2018:

Tempestuous

This post continues the blogging challenge in which Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day, serves as inspiration a-la the “Daily Prompt.”

Want to join me? Feel free to link to this post on your blog, and/or post a link to your blogpost in the comment section below so others can enjoy it, too. Poetry, photography, short stories, anecdotes: Go for it!

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