I’ve been missing in action from Five Minute Friday for a few weeks. There are a lot of reasons … my health … falling behind … catching up … literally finding time. But the exercise is so important to me. It’s part of my routine {even if I do generally get to post a day late}. I value the camaraderie of my fellow writers as we open our minds and reach into our souls to put down five minute’s worth of words {hopefully} worth reading. Then we congregate to Kate’s place (http://katemotaung.com/) for the most important part of the exercise — sharing. It’s as much of the routine as the writing. I invite you to stop by any time or even share your thoughts or try your hand at the writing.

But back to being MIA. I found the prompts difficult and kicked the writing down the priority ladder. I also feel a tremendous loss. So I decided to provide a synopsis of what was missed. I’m not going to stick to the time limit … just write. I hope my fellow writers accept this departure from form and I hope my other followers appreciate the post. It’s not pithy. But it is in the spirit of community.

So, here goes …

The four prompts I missed were:

Five: I was truly confused by the prompt. Five? Why not six? or eight? or 27? or three? Of course there was a reason for the post — the launch of our special Five Minute Friday book, celebrating the wonderful representation of what we’re all about: A safe place for writers to gather around one word and write free and unedited. I am proud to say I am one of the contributors {available at Amazon https://www.amazon.com/Five-Minute-Friday-Collection-Stories/dp/1532893744/or CreateSpace  https://www.createspace.com/6227220  }. The secondary reason for the prompt was the fifth anniversary of the death of Kate’s mother. Her words were heart-wrenching, heart-warming and something each of us can relate to.

Collect: I literally was running around to doctors’ appointments and trying to keep my business moving. My contribution is simple. It was time to collect my thoughts and assess my life … even if that meant foregoing putting those thoughts in print.

Test: Again, plenty of thoughts, too little time available. We are tested over and over in this life. In fact, tests are part of life. My test was an unexpected illness that landed me in the hospital for three days resulting in a barrage of medical tests.

And this week, Mail: Another Five Minute Friday perk … snail mail. It started with a tweet a long time ago and turned into an ongoing ministry. Members of Five Minute Friday have been sending each other snail mail once a week over predetermined six-week periods, and it’s so amazing! I join Kate and the rest of the crew in definitely encouraging you to try it out. If you’re not a Five Minute Friday participant, do it anyway. A word of encouragement by e-mail or snail mail could lift someone’s day. In addition to sending snail mails to my FMF friends, I regularly send out e-mail words of encouragement weekly to my friends and daily to my family.

Well, now we’re caught up. See you next Friday … or Saturday.

THOUGHT TO REMEMBER: Stay the course. Keep believing. You may be tired, discouraged and frustrated, but don’t give up on your future. Our God is faithful.