Dale challenges us to select our best photos of the past year for this week’s Cosmic Photo Challenge.
The following photos stood out in my memory.
Two trees in autumn fill the first picture with colorful leaves. The texture of the ancient pavement impressed me in the second one taken in Jerusalem. The third was a sunrise over the sea of Galilee in Tiberias, Israel.
Blue on blue with patient blue
caressing me and also you.
But should you say it’s red instead
insisting that I bumped my head—
the part about my head is true,
but so is all the pretty blue.
Previously posted on Poet’s Corner.
Below the vault of the small chapel’s roof Brad watched a singer in the band step back from the microphone because her daughter approached. They stood calmly embracing and bracing each other through two songs of praise and thanksgiving to the Lord and a prophetic word. It was getting late, but the service was nearly finished.
That night the chapel held about twenty people including those leading the worship. There’s not much to this tale because all that happened, as if that weren’t enough, was mother and daughter both about the same height but decades different in age rested their hearts in support of each other.
Brad wanted the same love in his own family that those two shared.
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Denise offers the prompt word “vault” to be used in this week’s Six Sentence Stories. Associated with these prompts is a YouTube Channel, Two Guys and a Girlie, discussing the writing of these stories featuring Clark, Nick and Denise streaming live on Sundays at 2:30 PM EST.
Dale offers the prompt “the big freeze” for this week’s Cosmic Photo Challenge.
I was going to get some ice cubes out of the refrigerator when I thought I’ve been through plenty of freezing weather before. Thankfully it always warmed up.
Here are two scenes of freezing weather from northeastern Illinois.
Our partying about the hall
was stopped by writing on the wall.
That awful hand mysteriously
wrote words we didn’t care to see.
Daniel told our heads of state—
The kingdom’s over; it’s too late.
A version of this previously appeared in Poet’s Corner.
If you’ve ever wondered where the phrase “writing on the wall” comes from, see Daniel 5.
The range of colors of the leaves went from greens to bright reds and oranges before they fell. Dylan listened to Rene’s parable of letting go like those trees do in the fall so that with empty hands they may receive new blessings in the spring. It sort of made sense to him, but the nature sentimentality was a bit much.
Later that day Dylan and his wife assembled the Christmas tree in anticipation not of Santa, reindeer and presents, but of children coming home with their families.
He recalled Rene’s parable remembering how once green leaves had turned red over the years as a consequence of his own past deviations from what he knew he should have done. Now, however, he longed to see the children to bless them and to remove any curses he might have brought on them as he and his wife wished them a “Merry Christmas”.
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Denise offers the prompt word “range” to be used in this week’s Six Sentence Stories. Associated with these prompts is a YouTube Channel, Two Guys and a Girlie, discussing the writing of these stories featuring Clark, Nick and Denise streaming live on Sundays at 2:30 PM EST.
Dale, offers the theme “lights, camera, Christmas” for this week’s Cosmic Photo Challenge.
Fortunately we put the tree up yesterday in time for me to take some photos of it for this prompt.
The tree is artificial and enough lights worked to not need to buy any more.
Merry Christmas!
Our praises rise. We all concur.
The golden true light shines and we
remember all, the way things were.
Forgive—we do—each enemy.
No secret shadows hide today.
Forgive us, too, both you and me.
Now every tear that turned life gray,
that smeared our pasts into a blur,
He’s wiped away, He’s wiped away.
Previously posted in Poet’s Corner.
I was thinking of Revelation 21:4, Revelation 7:17 and Isaiah 25:8.
Daniel had no problem believing in demons especially since members of his family, including himself, were messed up like lines of broken meter trashing a melodious poem. What didn’t sink in was the thought that the salvation which the street preacher taught included deliverance from those pesky critters.
Anyway Daniel’s life bounced like a yoyo, like an echo, like his day-trading portfolio from one curse to the next. Often he would confuse a curse for a blessing only to find out that he had fallen back into the rabbit hole of his addictions.
Things stayed pretty much the same until a miracle occurred. Like receiving a nourishing sandwich rather than spare change he might trade for stimulations he didn’t need all Daniel had to do was reach out, take and eat which he finally did.
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Denise offers the word “meter” to be used in this week’s Six Sentence Stories. Associated with these prompts is a YouTube Channel, Two Guys and a Girlie, discussing the writing of these stories featuring Clark, Nick and Denise streaming live on Sundays at 2:30 PM EST.
Dale offers the theme “out of the way places” for this week’s Cosmic Photo Challenge.
These are photos I took of the Beit Shean ruins last September. For me they are an out of the way place, but they may be common for tour guides in northeastern Israel.
The first two are sidewalk tiles that were uncovered along Palladius Street. The last photo is an overview of the ruins to show where the tiles were found. In the distance is Mount Gilboa where Saul’s sons were killed by the Philistines and Saul himself died. Their bodies were hung on the walls of Beit Shean until removed, burned and buried in Jabesh (1 Samuel 31).
Poetry, Short Prose and Walking 