Ragtag community – pamelascanepa

Hunger? #RDP

You may already know that when you take a cruise, you will feel no hunger and will not want for anything. I’m currently cruising, and of course I love to share photos. Oddly, I haven’t taken that many photos of the food, save for two here.

My boyfriend, who has never been on a cruise, is accompanying me and having the time of his life. Every meal brought to us is unique or perfect in many ways.

The balcony is a great place for room service breakfast!

It made me force myself to stay active and work off these excellent meals. Serving staff are also quite wonderful here onboard Royal Carribbean, and not one of them is overweight! How is that possible?

I’ll tell you, these service staff are hustling up good food daily. They work on a 7 month contract, often being away from their families. They don’t seem hungry, but they obviously have no time for gluttony either. Their’s is a hunger for success, a hunger to make a better life for their families. They are all quite friendly and willing to help if needed.

Dessert with every meal. English trifle tonight!

While it’s great to be waited on, I can’t tell you how heartening it is to hear about their families or their homelands. That is one endearing quality in my boyfriend, the way he respects the service staff and engages them in conversation. If you go on a cruise, I suggest you too the service and wait staff frequently, and give them a heartfelt Thank you!

Our cabin steward also does a wonderful job!

I am one happy girl, in need of nothing, and certainly I have nothing to hunger for, except for more travel. While this current vacation has nourished my spirit and fulfilled the need to get away, it has kindled a hunger and desire for even more travels in my life!

In a day or two, I’ll share about the shore trip to Chichen Itza to view their pyramids and Mayan ruins!

Thank you to Ragtag Community for providing a fitting prompt! Visit Ragtag Community at https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2022/06/21/rdp-tuesday-hunger/

Weekend Coffee Share, a Word

Welcome to my Weekend Coffee Share, hosted by Natalie the Explorer. I haven’t drunk coffee all week, so today I’m having my half-caff hazelnut. What’s your favorite beverage for a chat with a friend?

Due to a temporary issue with focus ( yes, despite the coffee), I want to do some wordplay. I am a middle school English teacher, after all . So, using today’s prompt from Ragtag Community, here is what I have, using the word ‘plate’:

Today

I feel like a car run out of gas

And I just want to pass the plate

It feels good doing nothing

And sleeping in late

I just want to put my feet up and rest

To realize I’ve tried my best all week,

So I’ve earned this right to not overthink,

To breathe in the sunshine and soak in

The cool breeze and warm rays.

Perplexed, #poetry #RDP

I’m feeling just slightly perplexed

My thoughts are a jumbled mess

In the middle of the night

My mind is afright

Why must I wake before the light?

Posted in response to the one word prompt posted daily at Ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com

In A Wave. #RDP #poetry

Today is where we live,

but yesterday is a place we visit

quite often, as mental time-travelers

in a wave of nostalgia or memory

of a little child’s hand in yours,

or a wave of fear

of the threat heard in a voice,

or of screeching tires,

or the shared memory

of being wedged between two other cars.

A wave of nostalgia could bring

a memory of young love

that was new, or

of climbing trees

in springtime,

scraping our knees and

running onward anyway, no care

but for the present moment.

We travel to remember

Why we don’t go certain places,

if we can trust a certain person,

or in moments we need to feel

our life has meaning.

We can forgive in ten seconds

but remember years later;

Love, regret, and fear are automatic.

But, just like swimming through the waves,

living in the present must be learned.

~~~~~~~~

**These thoughts inspired by the music of Still Corners’ song, The Trip. Comforting, yet slightly haunting.

***You may visit today’s RagTag Community prompt and challenge at https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2021/10/02/rdp-saturday-wave/

A Kaleidoscope #RDP

Maybe you have a bland color you don’t like,

But you find a way to incorporate others…

The blue that calms you, the blue that

electrifies you

The green that makes you feel embraced

like a long-time trusted friend

The brown that feels like

suddenly falling in the mud

The yellow like the sun that lifts you up

and helps you dust off and move again.

The bright orange of learning new things

and of laughter with a friend.

Such is the contrast of life, along the way

Enjoying all that we are, adapting

to the mysteries of each day.

**Posted in response to the daily prompt challenge at https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2021/09/11/rdp-saturday-kaleidoscope/

The Alpaca “Shag.” #RDP

In what is sounding like a peaceful, ambient track in my head, I’m remembering my day in upstate New York at the Lazy Acres alpaca farm. The tour is one hour and starts with loads of facts about the raising of these lovely animals as well as a tour of the shearing areas and barns on the property. One such fact is the shearing of the alpacas once a year, to control their wooly shag, as it is much warmer in this climate than the climate of their ancestry.

Set in a green, hilly area of upstate New York, Lazy Acres alpaca farm is lovely, and the animals are quite peaceful. We explored the farm on a beautiful, 75 degree day that felt like Spring to me (a resident from Northern Florida). I’d been visiting an old friend that used to work with me in Rochester, and found out my cousin was in the area. So, we arranged to meet her at the alpaca farm as well as her son, his wife, and their family.

A muddy walkway covered by wooden planks led to green pastures. It had rained profusely the day before. However, the sun shone brightly on us, and the visit was worth the muddy shoes. Our tour guide, a young college girl, told us that alpaca are not as agressive as lamas or camels. I found this to be true. While feeding them, I felt the alpaca’s teeth graze my hand, but not even in a nibble; it was just accidental as their lower teeth are in an underbite.

The children on the tour (I think you’d call them my third cousins) were quite engaged and interested. We grown-ups were charmed as well. The animals let us pet them as well as feed them. When the food ran out, they did, of course, lose interest. Not surprising, right? 🙂

I highly recommend such a tour for anyone who needs a brief escape from the worries of their life or just an escape from the rat race. Children who love animals will find it quite engaging as well! One of the alpacas had MIA on her tag, so I started calling her Mia. I assumed this alpaca was female, it answered to Mia anyway, and I could pet her after my food was gone. Though, maybe it was because my friend had some food left….

It makes me wonder what it would be like to only be concerned with only the most basic of needs: eating, digestion, shelter, family. The cares of the outside world, the ‘rat-race,’ cannot penetrate their peaceful exterior. My favorite alpaca, Mia, was actually quite a ham 🙂

Unbothered. 🙂

This was a perfect day!

*The Ragtag Daily prompt is given daily. You can find their site and today’s prompt at https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2021/07/22/ragtag-daily-prompt-thursday-shag/

The alpacas were my first thought when I saw today’s word prompt: shag. 🙂

One or Two, All Together. #RDP #poetry

They say the loneliest number is one,

but when all is said and done

Together can become empty, and you ask why?

Sometimes there’s a point, they no longer look you in the eye.

******

Sometimes, when you are just one

reaching out to many, you feel more whole

because when trying to stay together,

you denied and shuttered areas of your soul.

*****

You may be blessed to stay together,

or as one, you can still withstand the weather

You be you; as one or part of two, neither one is better.

***

***Subscribe to the Ragtag Daily Word Prompt; join in one day and see what comes out in words. See today’s Word Challenge prompt at https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2021/06/09/rdp-wednesday-together/

Subscribe to their blog for daily word prompts at https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com

Morning Bliss. #poetry

~~~

The dog comes back in, pep in his step

dirt stuck to his back, paws gray.

I laugh at his small blissful rebellion

As he will be bathed today.

I hope he got the best from that moment!

~~~~~

The sun peaks in gently, not fierce

Where I’ve left the door open a crack…

I hear the birds as I breathe in the fresh air;

and though soon, oppressive summer will be back,

Today, it is still Spring.

Visit the origin of today’s word prompt challenge: https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2021/05/31/rdp-monday-bliss/

Loose the Clinging. #RDP

Are you still clinging to

Your fears and shortcomings?

Do you let your fear shroud your light?

I can’t do Math, won’t travel alone,

Can’t commit to someone…

Can you let these thoughts go?

Are you being all you can be

Or simply being yourself?

(Or stopping short of it)

Are you wrong, or are you right?

How would you know, if you never really tried?

******** Written in response to the one word prompt, Cling, provided at Ragtag Community site. Visit it to see other takes on the prompt, and follow so that you may join in as well:

https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2021/03/18/ragtag-daily-prompt-thursday-cling/

Isolate, #RDP #flashfiction

It’s easy in times like this

not to trust,

to let fear take over.

You think, if you isolate, what you fear can’t win. That, if you isolate, you are starving the fear, shutting off from what you fear.

Let me tell you about this little monster. It grows in cold, dark, lonely places void of light, within people who fear the warmth, who assume the worst of others. It grows; it takes over the very person trying to starve it. For, one who assumes the worst, needs to give oneself a chance to be proven wrong. If you are never proven wrong, then why would you change your beliefs?

Isolating is great, when it occurs to get things done, to get down to business and feed your own thoughts. When one isolates to avoid, that monster grows ever stronger and IT feeds off your own thoughts. I know. You see it growing all over me, don’t you?

Two young men had stopped but walked off as the old women opened her coat and removed it to reveal her arms covered in dirt and a green growth all over her arms. She had lost her audience; they were disgusted and maybe even afraid.

A little child peeked out at her from behind his mother’s leg where he’d been hiding.

I see you! Don’t be afraid! Don’t let it take over you, don’t do what I did. You still have time! Be brave, little one!

He didn’t turn away; he knew she was not the monster but simply had been overcome. Still, he stayed close to his mother.

Quickly, his mother whisked him away, and the old woman smiled, once again putting on her coat. Her audience was gone, but she had reached one impressionable soul, and this was good. For, she knew paranoia would again sweep the land, and likely very soon.

(Written in response to the Ragtag Daily Prompt word: Isolate. Quite timely, yeah? Visit them at https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2020/03/13/rdp-friday-isolate/ )

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