As Summer Fades

Slip from summer into fall.
Then winter brings us cold, white days,
But spring, that wonder of it all,
Leads back to summer anyway.

Linked to Cosmic Photo Prompt where Dale offers the theme of “as summer fades”.

Also linked to Trent P. McDonald’s The Weekly Smile. It was raining this past week and so I worked on a puzzle in computational number theory. The challenge was to verify the 3x+1 trajectory-length records by running a different program to find them. Using Python my best time for integers under 670,617,280 had been over 700 seconds. Last week I was able to reduce that to 352 seconds. That made me smile. If I believe what others have achieved, they can do it in under a few seconds. That’s my goal unless it stops raining. Even if I get it below 10 seconds, it is about as significant as solving a 1000-piece jig-saw puzzle, but at least I will be able to verify the larger records that have been found.

First Leaves to Fall
Cosmic Photo Challenge

Songs One Can’t Forget – Flash Fiction

“I hope the kids don’t remember that song you used to sing to them about the bird and the word.”

“I didn’t sing it for long. When they got older, I pretended to be the voice of their doll, Sweetie Baby.”

“You know, we still have that doll in case they ever want it.”

“It’s good to keep stuff like that. Actually some of those old songs aren’t any goofier than the ones they sing today. No wonder we’re all messed up.”

“At least the grand kids don’t know the song.”

“Unfortunately I sang it to them as well.”

Linked to Carrot Ranch’s September 10th Flash Fiction Challenge. Charli Mills offers the prompt to use something heard on the radio now or in the past.

September’s Yellow

Blend

I feel as if I ought to send
A warning out to one and all:
Beyond the bend's a cliff, a fall,
A tragedy, a blur, a blend
Into a gorgeous, awful end.
And then inconsequentially
What would become of you and me?
Ah! Let it come here anyway.
Yes, Come tomorrow. Come today!
Embrace the opportunity.

Linked to Ronovan Writes Décima Poetry Challenge where the challenge is to use “blend” as a rhyming word in the A lines. The poem has ten lines with rhyme pattern ABBAACCDDC.

Trail at Palmer Park, Colorado Springs, Colorado
Ronovan's Decima Poetry Challenge Image
Ronovan’s Decima Poetry Challenge Image

Gallery – A Six Sentence Story

“All those tiny people in the gallery don’t know it but they’re at the center of the universe,” Mark asserted.

George protested, “The universe doesn’t have a center.” 

And so the claims and counter-claims of George and Mark came and went, often nowhere. Where would one want them to go? Should they flutter to the whatchamacallit radio source at Sagittarius A*?

“And,” Mark continued, “if those tiny people in the gallery are at the center of the universe they’re right smack dab where they ought to be.”

Linked to Six Sentence Story where Denise offers the challenge word “gallery”.

Tiny Shadows at the Center of the Universe
GirlieOnTheEdge Denise Farley's six-sentence-stories icon
GirlieOnTheEdge Denise Farley’s six-sentence-stories icon

Look to the Skies

Look up. Look down.
Reflecting water shows
The sky as all around.
Morning sunshine grows.

Linked to Cosmic Photo Challenge where Dale offers the theme of “look to the skies”.

Also linked to Trent P. McDonald’s The Weekly Smile. It’s midnight. Soon it will be Monday morning. I can’t think of a good reason (that I haven’t already reported) why I’ve been smiling this past week. Being able to calmly watch the sun rise over the pond below is a blessing that reinforces the default smile. Although the August wildflowers are past their peak in the Forest Preserve, the forest and trails are still there and sometimes I am as well.

Look up. Look Down. The sky is all around.
Cosmic Photo Challenge

High Winds – Flash Fiction

The only high winds were Windy, the wolf, so Straw, the pig, built a house of straw. Brick overbuilt with bricks. Stick used what was lying around, sticks. Both annoyed Straw.  “It’s not fair!” Straw complained to Windy. He wanted all three houses.

Windy went to Stick’s home and blew it down. Chomp! He ate Stick.  Then he went to Brick’s home. Brick gave Straw a key. Straw lent it to Windy. Chomp! 

When Windy returned Straw squealed, “Perfect!”  Windy, mind-blown as ever, thought: yummy.  Chomp! He (gasp!) ate Straw.

Moral: Some high winds can take your breath away.

Linked to Carrot Ranch’s September 3rd Flash Fiction Challenge where Charli Mills offers the theme of “high winds” for these 99-word stories.

Purple

Sunday Walk 5

When you have reached your own room, be kind to those who have chosen different doors and to those who are still in the hall. If they are wrong they need your prayers all the more; and if they are your enemies, then you are under orders to pray for them. That is one of the rules common to the whole house.

C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, The Complete C.S. Lewis Signature Classics, 2002, page 11, at the end of the preface

Here is a song written by Keith Getty and Stuart Townend. Wikipedia reports a controversy between the satisfaction theory of atonement and the ransom theory of atonement regarding the lines “Till on that cross as Jesus died, the wrath of God was satisfied”. Although I don’t fully understand this controversy, I like this song. In doing so I hope I remain kind to those who have chosen different doors or who are still searching in the hall.

Keith Getty and Stuart Townend, sung by Kristyn Getty and Alison Krauss, In Christ Alone

Serenity #writephoto

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,
Perhaps you’re right. Perhaps that’s true,
But I still see a pretty blue.

Linked to Sue Vincent’s Thursday Photo Prompt. She provided the photo below for the prompt.

Sue Vincent's photo twilight
Sue Vincent’s photo twilight
Sue Vincent's Image for #writephoto
Sue Vincent’s Image for #writephoto