Sometimes I feel like the Little Engine That Could … I think I can … I think I can … I think I can … Only in my case it’s  more like Good intentions …Good intentions … Good intentions. Just like the Little Engine who ultimately could, I can say my good intentions end with results.

Of course I’m talking about Five Minute Saturday — er, Friday on Saturday. I had the best intentions of getting my focused writing in yesterday, but my non-drowsy antihistamine knocked me for a loop. I prepared to carve out my five minutes of writing by taking a five minute nap … that morphed into three and a half hours and sapped me of the energy to walk over to the computer. I reasoned some fresh air and dinner might motivate me, but no, a brisk walk and a full belly made me head right for the recliner where I indulged in watching Sum of All Fears for the umpteenth time and slipped into dozeland somewhere midway through Sue Thomas, F.B.I Eye.

But all is good. My active dream life seeded serious ideas for this week’s assignment. Five Minute Friday is moving from Kate’s place  (http://katemotaung.com/2017/05/25/five-minute-friday-visit/) to Facebook starting next week (http://www.fiveminutefriday.com) and Kate tied in the prompt word — VISIT — with the announcement.

I encourage you to visit, join in and comment. And, as I’ve been doing, here’s Heather’s take on the value of the exercise, taken from snippets found in Five Minute Friday: A Collection of Stories Written in Five Minutes Flat as an added inducement to join in.

“I am so excited about this book! What an exciting idea! I have had so much fun and have loved doing these prompts. I was part of a writing group for a year and got so much great feedback and wrote so much. It was after three babies in four years and it helped me to get back into my writing. Never thought I could do it. Then I moved from Las Vegas to Iowa and my group couldn’t come with me. Too bad! I came across Lisa’s blog [Lisa-Jo Baker, the founder of Five Minute Friday] after searching for some prompts and writing again has been so therapeutic. I just read back through my blog because I was looking for a prompt to send in [for the book] and I was so surprised at how much I had written. My husband even asked me whose blog I was checking out and I said “Mine!” and he was so proud. Thanks for posting and for all your work. It has made a big difference fir me.”

That’s a common theme. Five Minute Friday is sooo much more than just an exercise in writing. It’s family communicating. It’s friends communicating. It’s strangers-soon-to-be-friends communicating.

So, with that, we’ll set the timer for five minutes. Let’s GO…

I’ve actually been waiting for this prompt for a few weeks. It all started when I visited my home town of Paterson, NJ. Admittedly, it was a short trip for a funeral, but I always felt Paterson was “home.” I was comfortable in the city I called home for a quarter of my life.

This time was different. It didn’t feel like home. I wasn’t scared or bewildered on how much it had changed from my youth. But it just didn’t feel like home anymore. In fact, instead of wandering around, I focused on the staples — The Great Falls, Garrett Mountain (technically not in Paterson), Pennington Park riverfront. And as I was driving back to Maine, it struck me, I was more of a visitor than a native. I didn’t have to see my boyhood and early-married homes. I didn’t have to pass by my first job site. I didn’t have to wander through the various sections of the city. I didn’t have to visit my elementary or high school. I didn’t have to go to my boyhood hangouts. I didn’t have to re-live those early days.

As I’ve thought about it further, on another plane, life is that way too. As I approach the winter of my life, I can look back at the spring, summer and fall, but I don’t have to cling to those times. I can appreciate them, but I don’t have to re-live them. They were stepping stones to now, to the way life is now. I was and am just and a visitor on this planet we call earth on the way to a different experience, a different realm. All the good and all the bad I experienced have helped me forge forward to the day I reside in a far better place. And in that realm I can comfortably look back as a … STOP

… visitor going through my memory scrapbook.

THOUGHT TO REMEMBER: The task ahead of us is never as great as the Power behind us.