Petrichor—Six Sentence Story

Jake’s rationalizations tried to redirect the waterfall of reality away from himself so he could avoid getting wet. If the latter rain came his soul was so dry he might start smelling like petrichor. And if he got filled to overflowing who knows what might happen?

From mountain sources water splashed down boulders like conviction eroding away the resistance of his stony heart.

Jake remembered reading somewhere that given the current rate of erosion the entire mountain would be at sea level in less than fifty million years assuming reality lasted that long. He wondered how long his heart could hold out.

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Denise offers the prompt word “petrichor” to be used in this week’s Six Sentence Stories. Although I’ve heard it before I had to look it up. Petrichor is “the earthy scent produced when rain falls on dry soil.

James 5:7
Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain.

The Great Wide Open

Dale offers the prompt “the great wide open” for this week’s Cosmic Photo Challenge.

These photos were taken long ago, but here’s a poem that is new:

From oceans to mountains to oceans again
with clouds in the sky and the birds coming in.
Skip down to the photos. In gratitude stay.
Give praise while you can. Oops. The birds flew away.

Sunrise Birds
Sunrise Birds, Florida
Blue Ridge Mountains, North Carolina
Cripple Creek, Colorado
Atlantic Ocean from Florida

Box—Six Sentence Story

Many stories, few of them good, could have been told about her by those depositing their tithes in the treasury box. Most everyone advised her to keep her tiny coins since neither the temple nor the Lord needed them as much as she did. Figuring she couldn’t survive on them but sensing no one really wanted what little she had to offer she didn’t know what to do.

Regardless of her failings which were perhaps right up there with our own those two coins were all she had. They weren’t much, but they weren’t counterfeit either.

And so she gave away every single one.

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Denise offers the prompt word “box” for this week’s Six Sentence Story.

Luke 21:1-4
And he looked up, and saw the rich men casting their gifts into the treasury.
And he saw also a certain poor widow casting in thither two mites.
And he said, Of a truth I say unto you, that this poor widow hath cast in more than they all:
For all these have of their abundance cast in unto the offerings of God: but she of her penury hath cast in all the living that she had.

Western Wall, Jerusalem

Fun In The Sun

Dale offers the prompt “fun in the sun” for this week’s Cosmic Photo Challenge.

With all the shadows in these photos they might also be seen as “fun in the shade”. Since the day was hot, I was grateful there was shade and cold water nearby.

These were taken last Saturday at South Mountains State Park in North Carolina.

A Stream Feeding The Catawba River in North Carolina
Top Of The Waterfall
Closer, But Not Quite At The Bottom Of The 80 Foot Drop

Yellowbelly—Six Sentence Story

Early in the morning worried about how he was going to use the assigned word “yellowbelly” in a story Jeremy walked to the ocean as the beach was being raked into a linear pattern perfect in its symmetry until he stepped on it. He saw a bird and considered but then rejected the idea that he might be able to get away with writing a story about a yellowbelly seagull.

Forgetting about the word he wondered where the birds that were coming to shore spent the night, but all they wondered about was whether he brought snacks. Others bored with the sun tossed pieces of bread to the birds who grabbed whatever they could as Jeremy clicked his camera.

Eventually everyone, including the yellowbelly seagulls, realized that the day had indeed begun as expected without their needing to be there at all. It just happened leaving it to those like Jeremy who’d rationalize the joy out of stuff to only step back onto the freshly raked sand and see to his surprise sunrise, birds, beach and even himself as one awesome gift among many others from the Lord for which his thanks was long overdue.

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Denise offers the prompt word “yellowbelly” to be used in this week’s Six Sentence Stories.

Job 37:14
Hearken unto this, O Job: stand still, and consider the wondrous works of God.

Flush—Six Sentence Story

There’s nothing out there that resembles what you’re looking for, Timothy’s inner voice said as he concluded his failed search for intelligent extraterrestrial life-forms wondering—Well, what about non-intelligent life?

There‘s none of that stuff either, the voice answered. Be grateful that there’s life as you used to know it still on Earth.

Well, what about those aliens in their fancy UFOs that beamed me up and experimented on me? he asked.

Yeah, they’re real, but I told you to stop messing with the demonic.

This conversation with his only remaining friend was all Timothy needed to flush away what was left of his feigned composure as he exploded like a supernova into a sequence of big bangs against the padded concrete walls while psych ward orderlies came in to strap him down for further experimentation.

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Denise offers the prompt word “flush” to be used in this week’s Six Sentence Stories.

The Mediterranean Sea and Jaffa Beach in Tel Aviv, Israel