Friday Writings #251: Halloween and Día de Muertos

 

Hello, Word Artists and Admirers! Over the next couple of days we'll be hitting two of my favorite holidays, Halloween and Día de Muertos. Sometimes people think of them as the same thing, but that's not really the case, especially if you're thinking about the modern, more mainstream version of Halloween.

Halloween today is usually associated with things that are scary or at least a bit spooky. Skeletons are just another member in the menagerie of monsters, alongside vampires, goblins, and Frankenstein's monster. 

I love indulging in spooky media this time of year. My husband and I have been watching From these last couple of weeks and I just got done reading Wolf Worm by T. Kingfisher.

Literally, This is Halloween

But the skeletons on Día de Muertos is less Jack Skellington trying to scare the pants off you and a lot more like getting together with a loved one you don't see too often. The skeletons represent people who have passed on. It's meant to be a comforting celebration, honoring the connection you had in life and welcoming their spirits into your home.

This is Día de Muertos

Mexico has the most well known Día de Muertos traditions, but other Latin American countries celebrate it as well. In Peru, where my family is from, there are graveyard picnics complete with music, dancing, and a special sweet bread.

I have a lot of people I remember on this day. A close friend of my husband and I, who was best man at our wedding. A dear friend who was closer than a sister to me. My mother and father in law. I think this year, maybe I'll have a Star Trek marathon to also honor the late Walter Koenig and Sir Patrick Stewart. All of my lost loved ones enjoyed different versions of that franchise. So while it might not be a festival in a graveyard, I think they'd all appreciate it.  

This week's optional prompt will be to write about Halloween and/or Día de Muertos. I'll take fiction and non-fiction, poetry or prose. Just remember to keep your pieces to 396 words or fewer, and one post per person, please. 

Next week, we'll invite you to write about looking through glass.

Friday Writings #250: Memories and Dreams

Hello, Word Artists and Admirers! October is a funny sort of month where I live. Fall is in full swing here and the slow drift of the brightly colored leaves can lull a busy mind to dance with a memory or a daydream or two. 

When the wind lifts the leaves in miniature cyclones I remember a six year old version of myself. She was sure that if she could jump right into the center of one at just the right time, she could find a way to Narnia. (That kid had a pretty wild imagination.) I think about a sixteen year old version of myself. She felt too mature for trick or treating that Halloween, because she was going on her first date (and her first kiss too). I think about a twenty-seven version of myself, long past her first kiss...welcoming her first child into the world. I think about my forty-one year old self, saying goodbye to an old friend, the best man at her wedding, as he left the world after a battle with ALS. Her first dog (the dog that had the magic power of turning a cynophobic girl into a die hard dog person) also left the world a week after that.

I'm in my fifties now and October still holds a special place in my heart with all of its wonder and bittersweetness. This October my mind often turns to the loved ones I've lost along the way. But sometimes I still try to jump into a circle of whirling leaves when I see one. Just for old time's sake.

So for this week's optional prompt, I'd like you to write about either memories or dreams (or both). I'll take poetry and prose, fiction and non-fiction. But do keep your pieces to 396 words or fewer, and one post per person, please. 

Next week, we shall invite you to find inspiration in Halloween and Día de Muertos.

Friday Writings #249: Message from an Angel

 

Hello again, dear Word Weavers all!

How are you surviving these stressful times we live in?

I was recently presented online with the offer of a free message from the angels. I listened, and it turned out to be a guided meditation, a very nice one too. (I checked the site out first to make sure it wasn't one of those all-too-frequent semi-scams, where you do get the first bit free but only if you sign up for more – which they say you 'can cancel at any time' but that often proves quite tricky!)

Anyway, it put me in mind of the angel oracle cards I have, but haven't used for a while. I have two different sets, actually. One lot you can find if you Google 'angel cards,' listed as 'The original angel cards.' They are small, narrow cards with a picture one side and one word on the other, which were originally part of a self-growth board game called The Transformation Game, but people loved them in their own right so they began to be sold separately. I never played or even saw the game, but I love the cards so much that when I do a Tarot reading for someone, I invite them to pull an angel card first for an overall message. 

 

I also own a pack of 'Healing with the Angels' oracle cards by Doreen Virtue, the first set of cards she ever offered for sale, followed by many other oracle decks as well as books on New Age ideas. (The only other item I have is her 'Healing with the Fairies' oracle cards which immediately followed her publication of the angel deck.) In 2017 she became a conservative Christian and rejected her former New Age beliefs. Well, we all have to work these things out for ourselves. I still quite like her cards, though I seldom consult them nowadays. (If you just look up 'angel cards' you might not find them, but you will if you Google 'Doreen Virtue's angel cards'.)

And I see, looking online, that there are now many other brands of angel cards available too. Who knows if they really do connect to the angels? Hopefully the authors are ethical, and have done their best to 'tune in'. 

Not that you necessarily need cards to receive an angelic message! You could simply still your mind, fill yourself up with love energy to make a bridge for communication, and ask for a message; then see what idea or image enters your head. Or you might request a sign, and that might come to you as a piece of music, a glimpsed book title, an object in nature... You could even make a direct request to any or all of the major archangels (Rafael, Michael, Gabriel, Uriel). And maybe the response will be your own unconscious speaking to you – which, in itself, could be valuable.

But we're not asking you to get an actual message, just to imagine what such a message might be if you did get one.  

Yes, your optional prompt for this week is to consider this: if an angel were to give you a message, what do you suppose it might be? ... and  then tell us.

Guidelines: Poetry or prose, old or new, on prompt or not, 369 words maximum (excluding title and notes), post to your blog, add your link to that blog post to Mister Linky below, and please read and comment on what others share. (Also you may talk to us and each other in the comment box below.) 

Next week  We'll invite you to write about memories and dreams. 

EXTRA! Senryu Sunday 
Our Rall has begun offering a new writing opportunity for us (and others): Senryu Sunday, where we can respond with senryu to pics she posts. (It's her own initiative, not part of P&SU – but she is part of P&SU as a regular participant for so many years, and we thought it would be nice to cheer her on in this endeavour.) To access this option, go to her blog, find the search window top left and type in the words 'Senryu Sunday,' then the latest one will appear. Or, if it's on a Sunday that you're looking, just go straight to her blog and you'll find the current one onscreen. When you've written your senryu (one or more; like 'haiku' the word is both singular and plural) post it/them at your own blog and add that link in the comments to her post.

 

Friday Writings #248: Noisy!

Hello, Word Artists and Admirers! Once upon a time, I was scared of dogs. If you had told little me that not only would I grow up to love dogs, I'd voluntarily sign up to live with a super-loud breed three times in a row, she might have kicked your shin before running away.

Don't let her fool you...

she's LOUD when she wants to be

I think I forgot how loud corgis could be with my second one, Kit. That one relied on charm to get what he wanted. Faye, my first, could be loud but she often wasn't. Jelly Bean is a whole other story. My co-workers have gotten used to her indignant bark during meetings. (She can hear other people's voices but can't see them!) We do our best to encourage calm but, also like most corgis, she's a stubborn thing.

So in honor of my doggo's sonic bark, today's optional prompt is about noise. Write about a type of noise, literal or metaphorical. I'm good with fiction and non-fiction, poetry and prose. Just remember, one post per person please and keep your pieces to 369 words or fewer.

Next week, we shall ask you to consider the following: If an angel were to give you a message, please tell us what you suppose it would be. 

Friday Writings #247: Reframing Negative Concepts

Greetings, dear poets and storytellers.

Sometime back (okay… last week), someone introduced me to a group of people as “our beloved black queen of toxic positivity”. Since I knew said someone can’t stand me and was just trying to be nasty, while pretending to be funny (in front of individuals who didn’t know me), I smiled my biggest (and creepiest) smile, and said, “Oh, thank you! I’ve always thought of myself as a Cognitive Reframing Ninja, but I’ll take queen. And black looks so good on me.” 

What can I say? I do embrace Cognitive Reframing. I consider anything that helps me take something bad and morph it into something I can work with (without screaming) a blessing. This applies to situations, people, concepts… all sorts of things. For example, the last time my therapist asked me to use one word to describe how I felt about the next 6 months, I said, “Uncertain.” And that isn’t a bad thing. With uncertainty comes opportunities, new beginnings, possibilities, creative unknowns… 

With that idea in mind, I invite you to write poetry or prose, which takes a negative concept and turns it into something positive. 

Add the direct link to your response to Mister Linky. One post per participant, please. 369 words maximum. Let your entry be new or old. Write to the prompt or to a topic of your choosing. Visit other writers. Share your thoughts on their thoughts. 

next week: We’ll ask you to write about a type of noise, literal or metaphorical.