Respecting the Flame, #poetry

Photo by Skully MBa on Pexels.com

Today was my 15th day in the “Soul Coaching” book which gives 28 days of digging deeper and examining our lives with each week representing one of the four elements.

This is Fire Week. As you can tell from Monday’s Flash fiction post, the concept of fire has been present in my thoughts and my life, with its ability to destroy and rebuild things, to give us opportunities to start anew, etc. I, however, have found a need for balance. Still, fire showed up in my life and I said, “Okay. I will survive.” I had to let go of some things I held dear and move on toward newness. As the book says, “face your shadow self,’ and ‘examine your fears.’ I am now aiming to thrive amidst the fires of change and maybe even use them to my benefit.

This has inspired me to write a poem this week:

Respecting the Flame, (c) 2021

Some people never feel the burn

they fear it and won’t let the tables turn.

They won’t even let it smolder long

They feel it will destroy and set things wrong.

True, a fire can diminish all in its wake,

but remember its sharp ability to create–

to make something new of what was before,

to push us forward and knock down stubborn doors.

Fire symbolism turns up in expected places this week! Evening walk.

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Weekend Coffee Share, 1/25. Moving along…

Welcome to my Weekend Coffee Share, hosted by Antoinette!  Today consisted of a drive to Southern Georgia with my boyfriend to see his dad, and now I am relaxing, looking at the papers I brought home to grade.  Tomorrow will have to do.

My shoulder has been feeling better.  The back is better too, but last night, for some reason I had sciatica return to the left side.  I did, however, get 7 hours of sleep, and I’ll take that any time over what I’ve been getting lately!

I’ve been taking an online course in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.  I mentioned, last week, that at times I feel my thoughts over-thinking and/or telling myself I didn’t do something right, checking and re-checking, tending towards OCD.  The Cognitive Behavioral Therapy course is for anxiety and depression, which can be related and sometimes even come together.  At any rate, it also identifies OCD as a type of anxiety disorder.  Makes sense.  One suggestion was to wear a rubber band and snap or ping it whenever you recognize these thoughts occurring.  So, I started doing this.  Let me give it some time before I tell you what I think of this strategy.  However, I did wear it to school Friday, and my day went well, maybe just for knowing it was there?  Time will tell.

I watched a little Netflix last night, and tonight I’ll meet my boyfriend for a good dinner somewhere.  I have decided that, on Valentine’s Day weekend, I’ll let him give me a ride on his motorcycle again; it has been three years since I’ve done that.  I stopped after I got sideswiped and pushed over to the curb three years ago, then having a panic attack.  It was scary, I’ll admit.  It may have activated the back and shoulder trouble.  I tensed up horribly and felt myself doing so for months afterward whenever I drove at high traffic times and especially on bridges.  It’s likely just one exacerbating factor.  At any rate, I told him we could take a short ride on the motorcycle.  It is a big hobby of his, and he does read my books, so I think I should do this with him every now and then!  Plus, doing so will make me feel so brave and like I have overcome a lot of the pain and  negative self-talk that got me up to where I was when my doctor referred me for physical therapy.  It would be a sign of progress!

This week, I worked on my Gifted Endorsement class a lot and the only writing I did was  for a blog challenge called Fandango One Word Challenge.  (I love these)! I wrote a poem in response to the word: Profile.  Have a look:  https://pamelascanepa.wordpress.com/2020/01/24/fortune-cookie-psych-profile-fowc/

At times, it reminds me of myself.

That’s all I’ve got for today.  How was your week?

#flashfiction Friday Fictioneers, “The Road Less Taken.”

Photo credit: PHOTO PROMPT Shaktiki Sharma

Cassie stepped off the curb.  “Wait!  Wait!”  A male voice called.

She bristled.  Please, no, not when I’ve made it this far.

A young man approached another young woman next to her.  “I’m sorry,” he said, and embraced her.  Ah, true love.  Or not.

Close call, she thought.

Lord knows, it took enough nerve to get her this far.  She couldn’t stay any longer.  Something in her would die if she did.

The bus, a $50 fare, would get her on her way fast.  Back home.

“Merry Christmas to me,” she whispered, boarding the Greyhound bus, backpack in hand.

~99 words.

Each week, Rochelle Wisoff-Fields-Addicted to Purple hosts Friday Fictioneers where we’re challenged to write a piece of flash fiction in 100 words, more or less, based on the picture above.  It is awesome, in this blogging community, to see the many different responses that are generated from one prompt or photo.  I encourage you to create your own and click the InLinkz button to add it to the Friday Fictioneers responses!  While you’re at it, go to Rochelle’s link above and check out some of the other Friday Fictioneers’ responses!

An InLinkz Link-up