Friday, March 18, 2022

Friday Writings #18: Moments of Joy

~ even amid disaster ~ 

 

Hello, dear wordsmiths.

Currently – as you hardly need telling – there is much occasion for alarm, horror, grief, despair….  These are appropriate reactions to some things going on in the world lately, both globally and in our own localities.

As many of you are aware, my town, like many others on the east coast of Australia, has recently been through horrendous flooding. I was never in danger, and luckily had enough food and petrol (not that I was able to go anywhere for a while); but lives were lost and the devastation around me is still hard to contemplate.

Meanwhile my son and his family (who live in Melbourne, interstate from here) tested positive for COVID – their symptoms fortunately not too severe, but uncomfortable enough.

The war in Ukraine shocks and distresses us all, and the prospect of further escalation is very frightening.

How helpless we feel – justifiably – in the face of such enormous events. And yet, to succumb to the emotions they arouse is not helpful. Action is what helps. But can we even take action?

In the flooding here, governments were slower to send help than on previous occasions. (Well, this one was the worst on record!) But the local communities have been incredible – people in small boats rescuing those stuck on rooftops; neighbours helping each other clear the mud left in houses; cafés reopening to offer free cooked meals to everyone rendered homeless and/or impoverished; private citizens cooking for them too; other individuals offering free laundry service; and so on and so on.

82 and arthritic, I didn’t volunteer anything like that. I used prayer, healing energy, and a spot of protective magic. None of which is fully effective if I am despondent. So I thought it essential to raise my own spirits.


I did this by finding moments of joy – joy in what are usually considered small things: the new flower blooming on my vine, out there in the back yard; my little cat curled asleep under her pink blanket into which she loves to burrow; reading Devotion (Why I Write) by Patti Smith; feeling grateful for the community spirit in our town; feeling both grateful and amused that my son in Melbourne was not struggling for breath in hospital, but planning to wait out the Omicron variant with a good book and some whiskey….

 


Our regular contributor ‘Revived Writer’ said it beautifully a couple of weeks ago:

Gift Today

joy-bubbles
rising in heart-glass:
drink it up,
notice it,
mysterious loveliness
in ephemera


If you would like a prompt this week, I invite you to write about something, however small and momentary, which brings you joy.

If you don’t feel the need of a prompt, please enjoy sharing with us whatever you care to write (or have already written).  

One piece per person, please – old or new, poetry or prose (prose limit 369 words excluding title) – and then link, below, to the particular post on your blog. If you’d like to leave a link there to us here, we’d be delighted. As we would to receive any comments you’d care to make here.

Enjoy the writing and reading! As the prompt stays open all week, don’t forget to check in on any gems arriving towards the end of that time.

Next week, Magaly will invite us to create poetry or prose inspired by the phrase, “It’s important to have a twinkle in your wrinkle.”

15 comments:

  1. Glad you and your family are overall well. There is much distress, indeed, in the world. Visuals of Ukraine particularly bring a sense of rage at so much destruction caused by one man holding power like a knife to a hostage’s throat. There is frustration but also some do what they can to help while trying not to escalate. Action equals joy in such a case.

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    1. Well put! Thank you. I think you have said it on behalf of many.

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  2. Ah yes we have to look to the little joys. Both my daughter and son had tested positive for covid and had to go into isolation. They are back out to work this week.
    I am soooo grateful

    Much💜love

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    1. Such a relief that this Omicron variant is usually so much milder than the earlier strains!

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  3. Thanks for the mention of Patti Smith's book. Gonna look for that. I have loved her other ones.

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    1. Oh, me too. I nearly added, in my post, that reading anything of hers is a source of joy.

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  4. I added an embellished but mostly story from my youth today.

    Keep dry, Rosemary and I'm glad your family is recovering. I'll remember the whisky remedy for the next time I feel under the weather or about 7pm tonight.

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    1. Unfortunately, even relatively mild COVID can cause loss of taste. During it, it turned out, my son was unable to enjoy his whiskey! He said it became undrinkable. So just don't get COVID. (Don't get it anyway.)

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    2. My son had the same reaction to a bottle of wine that I opened. He lost taste for about two weeks and I enjoyed that wine by myself.

      Your remarks about your flooding reminded me that during a local flood in 2008, the state department of transportation fined the drivers of dump trucks hauling sand for sandbagging and to raise the levees. Fears about being overweight and damaging the roads. The levee broke and the river washed the road out in several places.

      Oh, and I meant to say "mostly true story" above - ugh.

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    3. It was clear what you meant to say. (Smile.)

      Yes, we had a number of local roads washed out as well; some localities left isolated for many days.

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  5. I used the prompt to create a poem for submission to The Temz Review. I can't share it on my blog yet because it needs to be unpublished. I thought I'd share the link to The Temz Review in case anyone else would like to submit their work.
    https://www.thetemzreview.com/submissions.html

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    1. Thank you, dear OO, for thinking of this way of participating even when you're not allowed to! I think many of us are interested to know of new places to submit our work. And how happy I am that my prompt inspired you in this way! Do please share your poem some other time when you can – hopefully as a link to its appearance in the publication.

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  6. Rosemary, I am very glad your son's and his family's symptoms are too severe--small magics (or joys), right? And learning of people helping people always lifts me up. So, thank you for that... and for the excellent prompt.

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    1. I know you meant 'aren't too severe' LOL (danged autocorrect, right?).

      The way this community went into immediate action was and is uplifting. (Neither the need nor the help are over yet.)

      You're welcome. And I do love the concept of 'small magics'.

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    2. Autocorrect roars at my expense!

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