VernetteOutLoud

Five Minute Friday: Adore

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I’m linking up with the awesome Kate and the other equally talented writers of the Five Minute Friday community.

This is the GRAND FINALE of Five Minute Friday for 2014 {imagine that}!

Click on the button to the right for more details on what this challenge is all about and how you can participate {it’s not too late to join in}.

GO

You’re checking off lists and checking them twice, preparing for guests, planning menus and braving long lines to ensure we have absolutely everything that you might need to ensure that everyone has the best holiday season.

When do you stop to catch your breath?

Is it in the quiet of the morning, before everyone else wakes up?

I took a walk at lunchtime today because my building was cold and felt I needed the sun on my skin to help me thaw out. As I strolled through Downtown, Port of Spain, all the streets were alive with shoppers.

It seemed like everybody was carrying a bag or in line at a cashier to fill a bag. Most of the faces in the lines had a look of frustration or tiredness and it made my resolve to opt out of gift-buying around this time of year even stronger.

Instead of spending time in lines, I am looking forward to investing quality time with my family and close friends.

As I looked at the tired faces around me or people lugging around huge bags of stuff I had to wonder, why?

For one day? Or in our case here in Trinidad we have a long weekend…so I suppose people are preparing for hordes of family and friends visiting? Maybe?

I get that…but when do you take care of you? When do you make time to cherish yourself during the busyness of the season?

The reason we are sometimes so overwhelmed by everything merry and bright is because we forget that before we can take care of anyone else, we have to take care of ourselves first.

Honor yourself first because you are no good to anyone if you are no good to yourself.

My wish today for all those shoppers and people caught up in the bustle of this festive time of year: Remember to take care of yourself. There is life after the holiday season.

STOP

Short and sweet this week. Happy Everything to my FMF Family! I wish you nothing but the very best! See you in 2015

Five Minute Friday: Give

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I’m linking up again this week with the lovely Kate and the other awesome writers of the Five Minute Friday community.

Click on the button to the right for more details on what this challenge is all about and how you can participate.

GO

You know it’s time to make some changes, when the KFC delivery guy calls you ‘Vern’.

True Story.

It happened last night.

He also gave me some shade for wanting Pepsi instead of the apple flavored soft drink.

Want to know the saddest part of this whole mole hill I’m making into a mountain for the purposes of a Five Minute Friday story? And no it isn’t the heart attack waiting to happen or the fact that I don’t have KFC all that often I swear or that I don’t even know the delivery guy’s first name…

The saddest part about this story is that I wanted to tweet that first sentence, typed it out and agonized over hitting send for far too long, deleted it…and then Five Minute Friday came along and I turned it into a blog post.

Why?

Because I love writing about the minutiae of my life read the words over and over and came the realization that I’m not really all that funny and I really, really didn’t want people knowing just how much KFC I consume on twitter. Aaaaand I was more than a little worried that KFC’s social media manager will somehow ‘see’ the tweet and respond – like Cinnabon did.

Sometimes I feel like I’m doing this writing thing wrong. I over think everything. Even tweets! I write, and rewrite and then re-write some more and still the post will sit in my Drafts folder for ages. I’m going to hit publish on this piece, simply because I feel like I need to give myself a break sometimes and not be so serious all the time.

I suppose that’s what writing for five minutes is all about. Do you agree?

STOP

I ran out of time and did some proofreading after the five minutes were up.

Five Minute Friday: Still

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I’m linking up again this week with the lovely Kate and the other awesome writers of the Five Minute Friday community.

Click on the button to the right for more details on what this challenge is all about and how you can participate.

GO

Before the first rays of sunlight creep across the sky…my alarm goes off. Lately I have been getting up before the alarm so that I have a “extra” few minutes to stretch before I get out of bed.

Sometimes, I just want to stay a while, lie still and thank the Lord for another day. Most times after about 5 minutes of snuggling deeper into the lingering warmth and coziness of my sheets, I get off my bed and start my Keurig for the first cup of the morning. My warm lemon water first thing.

It does not take more than two minutes and then I am back in my bed sipping my lemon water…usually getting my mind ready for the day ahead. I take this time pray and then read a chapter or two from my current light read. This week it’s Dying To Be Me by Anita Moorjani.

Half hour creeps by. The rest of the world is waking up now. I can hear the traffic growing. I hear the engines and the horns but I have already centered my being so that the harsh realities of the new day seem bearable.

It’s time for my first cup of coffee. Back to my Keurig. I choose my “mug of the day” and then carefully make my coffee.

Stop. Sip. Savor. Repeat.

This time out of time before the world wakes up…is the favourite part of my day.

The mornings when I oversleep for whatever reason and miss this ritual…my whole day seems off. Because it is never just another day.

Today is an opportunity to start again.

You never know if this is going to be your last today…so you make each one count.

STOP

Five Minute Friday: Turn

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I’m linking up this week with the lovely Kate and the other awesome writers of the Five Minute Friday community.

Click on the button to the right for more details on what this challenge is all about and how you can participate.

GO

The song that started in my head the minute I saw the prompt is Turn! Turn! Turn! by The Byrds. I heard it growing up, because my mother was a music lover, however, it wasnt until Midnight Mass on New Year’s Eve (Day?) a few years ago, after the sermon this was the song chosen by the Priest as we waited to usher in the new.

The sound of the celebratory fireworks echoing in the distance and the church bells ringing out as the Byrds sang about there being a season for everything, is something that has stayed with me until now and I suppose something I will always come back to.

I have gone through seasons of death – death of dreams, loved ones and dying to myself – putting to rest the past and who I thought I was. I have been through seasons of weeping, laughing and healing and I am currently in a season of deciding.

Deciding how I am going to live this one precious life I have been blessed with… Deciding who I am going to spend it with and what exactly I’m going to create so as to give all praise and honor to my Father in heaven. Every day I wake up in the land of the living and slowly evolve into the me God created me to be, I turn towards Him that gives me life.

There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens:
a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

Please click to listen to The Byrds here.

STOP

I found myself getting lost in the song. It really resonates with me. I didn’t want to cheat and add another five minutes, so this is all I managed for this week’s prompt. The song I listened to while I was writing, the scripture I had the general idea about and added it afterward.

Five Minute Friday: Hold

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I’m linking up again this week with the lovely Kate and the other awesome writers of the Five Minute Friday community.

Click on the button to the right for more details on what this challenge is all about and how you can participate.

GO

I am so focused on letting go, that the word hold has me stumped.

On my way to work this week I thought about how my life has changed since my mother died. I frame everything in Before & Afters. Before mummy died I was this…or I did that… and now in the after… in this place of “life is too short” sometimes all I can think of is how to create more space for the things that move me. How do I create room for all the love, and peace and light I want in this life? How do I create the space for the things that truly satisfy my soul? How do I maximize the time I have?

And now as I think about hold…or rather holding space, or holding on, I think about the Before, the past. But only the pain and hurt and disappointment and sadness of the past. When did hold become a sad word?

My time is up…this thought will now be put on hold.

STOP

Five Minute Friday is a struggle. My thoughts always surprise me on what a word triggers. When my buzzer went off, I decided to look for a quote that brings some clarity to where my thoughts were going. I found this:

At any given moment, you have the power to say: This is not how the story is going to end. – Christine Mason Miller

I think it sums up “my life is too short to hold on to crap” mantra.