Five Minute Friday is designed for Friday writing, specifically five minutes of uninterrupted patter of the fingers representing the thoughts of the heart, soul and mind. Our fearless moderator Kate Motaung  — with help from her Twitter friends — supplies us with the one word prompt and off we go! When done, we link up at fiveminutefriday.com/, then settle in to gently critique and soak in our neighbors’ work. I can’t wait to find new friends each week!

I invite you to join us in reading the wide interpretations and multi-genre presentations of the prompt. Or, better yet, try your hand! It’s five minutes (more or less) with few rules and no obligations. It’s fun (albeit sometimes challenging). It’s networking at its finest.

To help inspire you to join our group, I’ve included testimonials from writers as outlined in Five Minute Friday: A Collection of Stories Written in Five Minutes Flat. This week, I’ll share some words from Rachel’s heart.

“Five Minute Friday community has been a blessing to me. I first found this  community through Sara Frankl, who wrote a Five Minute Friday post each week on her blog. For a long time I simply read Sara’s posts, but eventually mustered up the courage tojoin in the writing myself. The Five Minute Friday challenge is good for me. It gets me out of my comfort zone and forces me to write on topics I might not consider otherwise. The Five Minute Friday writers are encouraging and welcoming.They inspire me to be a better writer, to be more creative, and to persevere in writing. I am grateful for this community that comes together each week to write bravely and to encourage one another.”

There you go. This week, Kate came up with WHERE as the prompt. The timer is set, so it’s time to GO…

I’ve spent a good part of last night and today thinking about the prompt and wondering where the Spirit would lead me on this one. Nothing. Nada. Quiet. Blank.

And then it hit me. The answer is right in front of me. Where am I supposed to be? Right here. Right now.

The prompt wasn’t about where I was or even where I’m going. It’s about where I’m at right now, in my apartment in mid-Maine, sharing words {I’d like to say of wisdom, but that’s up for debate}, hoping to encourage those who stumble upon them.

All the yesterdays have been leading up to this moment. All the preparation — whether I was paying attention or not — was for this station in my life today. I’ve been commissioned to share the Light of Christ in whatever way I can … right here, right now.

The past is important. You have to know where you’ve been to appreciate where you are. And the future? Well, that’s not for us to determine, although I know where I will be following my last gasp of air … STOP

… on earth.

And so, my job right now is to share my thoughts right where I am and take advantage of the gift of today I’ve been given. I hope you do so as well.

THOUGHT TO REMEMBER: He who knows everything has a lot to learn… — Vern McLellan, Proverbs for People