Happy Five Minute Friday … our last Friday get-together for the year.

Five Minute Friday is a discipline where independent writers join together to transform thoughts on a specific prompt word from their minds through their fingers onto the screen in just five minutes. Then we get together and share our pearls of wisdom {okay, some times they’re swine, but the intention is always good} at Kate’s linkup spot or on Facebook.

To entice you to check us out, I’ve also been sharing some of the experiences my fellow writers have shared as chronicled in Five Minute Friday: A Collection of Stories Written in Five Minutes Flat. This week, I’ll include the words contributed by Martell. I hope her words inspire you to join our writing club.

“FMF is a writing practice that requires different tools and a different mindset. I wish I had used this format when I taught eighth grade writing! The regular discipline of this writing improved my writing.

“The one word prompt nearly always sparked my imagination and led me down unexpected paths. Sometimes, I confess to a total block on some topics, thus I skipped a few Fridays.

“Encouragement from a community of writers was just the added icing on a delicious treat. Such a wide variety of writers at different stages of life, different ways of worship and service, from all over the U.S. [and around the world].”

There you go. The prompt is BIRTH. The timer is set so it’s time to GO…

When I saw the prompt, I was reminded to the birth of my five children. I actually witnessed the moment my sons and daughters left the familiar womb for the world — well, four of the five. I was relegated to the waiting room for the birth of No. 1 son, which was standard procedure back in the dark ages.

But since then, I watched in awe — each time — as new life emerged, two daughters and two more sons. And I was in the Birthing Room for a number of my grandchildren’s grand entrance as well.

There was one birth I missed. Despite thoughts to the contrary, I was not at the birth of Jesus — the reason we celebrate this season. I didn’t see the blood and birth nor hear the first cry. I wasn’t there to wrap Him in swaddling clothes. I didn’t hold Him and whisper a prayer in His ear. Yet I know His birth was just as important — … STOP

… no, more important — as my family’s expansion. His birth expanded His Family to include me and my family.

To all, have a Blessed and Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Five Minute Friday returns in January.

THOUGHT TO REMEMBER: Freshly cut Christmas trees smelling of stars and snow and pine resin — inhale deeply and fill your soul with wintry night. – John Geddes