Welcome to our weekly edition of the Five Minute Friday blog link-up!
Each week I share a one-word writing prompt and invite anyone who is interested to freewrite for five minutes flat — no overthinking, no editing . . . just write!
If you’re new, you can learn more about the link-up and how it works here.
This week’s FMF writing prompt is: NOW
I’ve been working from home for a few years now, but I don’t usually have company during the week. But like so many other households around the world, my family has been at home for the past few weeks — kids home from school, husband home from work.
Several times a day, my husband has been asking me, “How are you doing?”
At first I would answer each time, but eventually I asked him, “Why do you keep asking me that? You’ve already asked me like three times today!”
But his asking reminded me of a time when I was deep in grief — anticipatory grief, to be precise, in the weeks before my mom died of cancer. Neither my husband or I could predict from one moment to the next how I would be doing. One moment I might be okay . . . the next moment I might be mad . . . the next moment I might be in tears. He learned to ask often.
And I think the “asking often” is necessary for such a time as this, when griefs and losses of all varieties are happening all around us — some close, some not as close, but still there.
It’s good for us to check in regularly with our family, friends, loved ones, colleagues, church family, and neighbors not just once in a while, but often.
Because as we’ve all learned these past few weeks, things can change rapidly. This week might not be anything like the next. In fact, we don’t even have the promise of tomorrow. We only have today. Right now. This moment.
STOP.
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This week marks two years since my memoir, A Place to Land, released. And while I hesitated to mark the occasion in any public way, I realized that this book is a message of hope — and we could all use some hope right about now, right?
So, I’m offering a “book birthday” special offer called the Grief and Hope Book Bundle for a limited time, while supplies last.
Buy one signed paperback copy of A Place to Land, get a free signed paperback copy of my latest book, Letters to Grief:
Get the Grief and Hope Book Bundle HERE
Whether you order for yourself or as a gift for a friend, I hope the books will be a blessing!
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Join this week’s link-up by clicking the blue “Add Your Link” button below, or leaving your five-minute freewrite in the comments:
Better get your boots back on,
get ready for the show;
this ain’t the life you counted on,
but ruck up, it’s time to go.
Keep your spacing, mind the ground,
and keep your sector clear;
the enemy is all around,
and he can smell your fear.
Perhaps this is the last patrol,
perhaps we won’t come home,
but keep in inside, now, and roll
with us; you’re not alone,
for in the place, the great Whatever,
we will all go down together.
I am so pleased (even if at times it annoys).. that your fellow continues to ask, to check in that you are all good when things are so radically different. That’s a good one to keep around you know? 🙂
Now is a good time to become a now person. Finish the unfinished. Do the undone! NOW!
I had been visiting everyone’s posts until I got to 20. Screen Shot, and when I clicked on that link to her post, what I saw instead was a message from Word Press telling me that I haven’t created anything yet. Does anyone know how I can get past this? The only option is “Create.” There’s no “No thanks” option, and I don’t want to post anything on Word Press since my blog is on Blogger. Feeling very disappointed by this turn of events. 🙁
Can someone help me out? I do not use Word Press myself, as my blog is on Blogger, but it seems to be trying to force me into subscribing. At first I was able to read all the links to this FMF, but when I got to 20: Screen shot, and clicked on her link, what I got instead was a message from Word Press that I have not created anything and did I want to create something on Word Press now. There was no option to say no thanks. I tried multiple times–refreshing between each try–but all to no avail. So does that mean, if I don’t post on Word Press, I won’t be able to read the posts on this site–or leave comments? Some of my comments on the posts prior to #20, did go through, but on others I got a message that this was a duplicate comment, which was not true, because when I went back to check, my comment wasn’t there. I’m a very techno challenged senior senior, and now my excitement at having found and joined this site has turned very frustrating and disappointing instead.
So sorry for the frustration, Sandra. Unfortunately the link that was entered for that post was a bad link. It wasn’t anything on your side; I have since remedied the link, so it should work now. Thank you so much for your perseverance and participation!
Kate,
Aww, that is sweet of your husband. Congratulations on your two books and may God comfort you when you miss your mom.
Here’s my five minutes on NOW:
Now is the time to row my boat
The one God gave me to row and not
to worry about the boat I don’t have
or the boat I wish I had, but
the boat that God has given me
with grace
with gratitude and
with reliance on His goodness and grace.
And now is the time to get out of the boat
like Peter if God calls although I confess
I rather wait then do it now
But whenever I listen to God’s call to go
and get out of the boat,
by His miraculous grace,
it is always better,
then when I stay in the boat and say
later instead of NOW.
Because “NOW” is where God is
when I sit and listen and incline
my heart toward His. It is not in the future where
any number of scenarios can play out,
but here in the NOW of dishes, dusty floors,
sore back, uncertainty, listening to Audrey Assad sing
“Abide in Me,” and realizing it is the now and here
that I can choose to be aware of His constant presence
and abide, rest in His love or instead choose to focus on what I
cannot, I repeat to myself, cannot control.
Help me, God to abide with you in the here and now.
Help me, dare I say it, now.”
P.S. I confess I corrected typos out of habit because I haven’t done a five minute timed writing in a very long time.
Thank you and blessings,
Dolly
Thank you so much for sharing, Dolly! Such a blessing to have you here!