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 I will be adding stories & reflections as time marches on. Take a gander today! |
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Contest Entries: "The Contest Challenge"  Participant"I Write in 2018" Participant"I Write in 2019" Participant"I Write in 2020" Participant2021: Independent Writing 2122: "I Write: Enter the Second Decade" Participant2123: "Twenty-three in Eleven " ParticipantThis mixed collection contains fiction, non-fiction, prose, and poetry. Entries vary in length from very short to one that is over 3000 words. 53 entries written in 2018: ▼ 53 entries written in 2019: ▼ 43 entries written in 2020 ▼ 2 entries written in 2021 ▼ Entries written in 2022 ▼ NOTE: All Titles with ~ ~ are either non-fiction or based on a true story. |
| ~ Confidence Course ~ I am writing this for "Honoring Our Veterans - Challenge" , a contest for stories or poems related to the military. My story is going to be one of my basic training memories.I entered the United States Air Force as a thirty year old woman. I tell a bit about it in an earlier entry: "~ Basic Training ~" .Today, I am going to share another tidbit: my experience with the Air Force "Confidence Course". As I prepared to write this entry, I found this: The original obstacle course, which was built in November 1942, was about a mile to a mile and a half long depending on what obstacles were open. Of the 14 obstacles, the two water obstacles would close seasonally affecting the course length.1 I could not remember how many total obstacles there were in the course and until reading this article, I did not know the two water obstacles were sometimes closed. They were open when I ran the course in 1982. They are the only two obstacles I clearly remember. They are ones I want to tell you about today. To graduate from Basic Training, we had to successfully complete this obstacle course. Passing meant making it through at least twelve of the fourteen challenges. The last two challenges of the day were our two "water challenges". As I approached the first water challenge, my body had already been pushed close to my limits. I stood on the edge of a small rectangular pool and the muscles in my legs were twitching from the exertions of the first twelve obstacles. Those twelve had taken everything I could muster but the good news was I had passed them all. The good news was that I had already passed the course. There were only two more obstacles and even if I failed them, I already had my 12/14. I stood on the side of the pool, legs trembling, and did NOT have confidence that I would be able to meet this first water challenge. The leaders were at the far end of this pool. They would swing a rope to me and I had to grab the rope and swing across to the other side. One problem: the rope did not reach all the way to my side. They would swing the rope to me and I would have to jump out and catch the rope in the air. If I missed, I would fall into the pool below and fail the challenge. If I managed to catch the rope, I had to quickly jump off on the other side. I did not expect to be able to catch the rope but I was wrong. I sprung through the air and successfully had that rope tightly grasped. I was half-way to success. One problem: I was so surprised, I neglected to jump off on the other side. I missed the one opportunity I had to successfully disembark and, as the rope and I swung back, I found myself hanging over the middle of the pool with no where to go but into the water: splash. One down and one to go. I walked through the sparkling clean water and climbed out on the other side. I was drenched. The only thing dry was the top of my head as I approached the final obstacle. I was confident I would easily pass this one—or so I thought. This last challenge was like a very long ladder that went over a dirty, slimy, nasty, yucky waterway. Our task was simply to go rung over rung to the other side. My grandfather had built us a swing set when I was young. The sides and top of the swing set were like ladders. I had gone rung to rung across that swing set many, many times. I was prepared for the piece-of-cake challenge. As we approached this obstacle, there was an airman standing there offering a towel to dry our hands with. Sadly, most of the flight had, like me, fallen into the crystal clear pool and, like me, they were drenched. There was only one towel. By the time it was my turn to dry my hand, the towel was dripping wet. The thought of trying to move rung to rung with wet hands was a bit disconcerting. Then I had an idea. The hair on the top of my head was dry. As I prepared to grab a rung and step off, I dried my palms the best I could by rubbing them on that bit of dry hair. Yay! It worked. I began easily moving forward. I got all the way to this center when I encountered an unexpected difficulty. The girl in front of me had STOPPED. I had no choice but to stop and wait for her. Everyone was yelling at her to move on or drop. Everybody but me. I was focusing on holding on for dear life but it seems that her ability to hold on was greater than mine. I made a decision to try and pass her. Unfortunately, the side rails were too big around for me to grasp and that led to another splash—into the dirty, slimy, nasty, yucky water. Suddenly, everyone was yelling at me—I was swimming in the wrong direction! When I got closer to the bank I realized my mistake and my flight was glad when I turned around. I actually think there was applause when I finally climbed up on the bank. I had dramatically failed the second water challenge but, thankfully, I had passed the Confidence Course. I didn't feel a burst of confidence though. All I felt was relief it was over.  Word Count: 966 words ~ ~ ~ JESUS is LORD! ~ ~ ~ Footnotes |
Jesus, be with me today. In this world, I will have tribulations But I can rejoice Because YOU have overcome This world. Let me be mindful of that today. Let me be mindful of YOU today. Jesus be with me today. Let me rest in Your peace. Let me rest in You. I will rest in You today. I will rest... Written for: "Shadows and Light Poetry Contest" Prompt: A Freestyle Poem on any subject. Line Count: 13 Lines ~ ~ ~ JESUS is LORD! ~ ~ ~ |
| ~ The Golden Years ~ Whoever said that these are our "Golden Years"? They certainly don't feel very golden to most of us. Old age has brought aches and pains galore. We get knees and hips replaced—shoulder surgery—cataract surgery. Are these golden? Many of us leak urine. Some of us leak stool. None of this fits in with my idea of "Golden Years". Who started this expression? Where did it come from? I turn to Google for answers and discover the phrase was first put forth to advertise Sun City! What is Sun City? "Sun City is an entire community dedicated to leisure and recreation for the active, retired adult." How many older adults get to stay active? Most of the folks around here either sit home alone or join us for cards and a hot meal at the Senior Center. What is the Senior Center? Well, it's the place where we are fighting lonely and wondering where the gold is as we wander into our sunset years... A golden sunset, perhaps, as we fight loneliness... Contest: "Invalid Item" Prompt: "We are fighting lonely." Word Count: 173 Words ~ ~ ~ JESUS is LORD! ~ ~ ~ |
| Haggai Jezebel in Kings Daniel Lions Den Joseph Esther Jeremiah 22 ~ ~ ~ JESUS is LORD! ~ ~ ~ |
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Have you seen this trinket:   Brooke is plotting. created that trinket for me in 2018. She created a bunch of trinkets for that party—one for each suspect. Then, if I remember correctly, the trinkets were hidden throughout the site. Well, you know me:   I found all those trinkets!  She made one of my character as my prize for that significant accomplishment! The words inside were my suggestion. I stayed in character and referenced a comment made on one of the episodes of Murder She Wrote. The bolded words at the end can be recognized by any die-hard Murder She Wrote fan. (If you are reading this and recognize2 the words in bold at the end of the message inside that trinket, drop me a line and I will toss some gift points your way...) Anyways, all those trinkets Brooke is plotting. created in 2018 are visible in my item: "Jessica Fletcher (a.k.a. ruwth)" . They are visible but I don't think they are collectible there and I am not sure if they can still be found hidden around WdC. If you find out, please let me know and I will update this entry.Now on to tell you more about me and the Masquerade Parties over the years... My first experience was in 2013: "Wdc 13th Birthday Masquerade Ball" . I had not yet created this image of my character and I had no signature. I did have fun though. In fact, that first year, I killed someone.You can read about it here: "  .I don't think I asked Brooke is plotting.'s permission ahead of time. I did ask Jeffrey Maine if it was okay if I killed him off in my narrative. Not sure why I decided I wanted to do it, I just got really caught up in the mystery. I chose Paul Bunyon (a.k.a. Jeffrey Maine) because he had totally stopped participating in the activity. I think " might be the most creative thing I wrote for any of the parties I attended. I sat out the next few parties and then decided to come back to "Wdc 18th Birthday Masquerade Party" in a big way: I created this image: Initially, the image had a border at the bottom that said something like "Jessica is attending the 18th Masquerade Party". When I decided to join folks at "Wdc 19th Birthday Masquerade Party" , I edited that part out of the image. Now, the image works for any of the Masquerade Parties. During the party, clicking on the Jessica Fletcher image will take you to the current party. Now that the party is over for the year, clicking on the image takes you to "Jessica Fletcher (a.k.a. ruwth)" .In 2019 I created a popnote list for folks to use:  . I actually created it for me to use and shared it with everyone. I have done something like this a few times. In 2013, it was just the suspect list: ". These two listed all party participants: Jessica finally arrives... from Wdc 20th Birthday Masquerade Party! and  In 2020, I struggled to participate because of having to work during the party. My best post from 2020 was probably my sum-up post: " . I actually created this post to try and help me (a.k.a. Jessica Fletcher) solve the mystery. It didn't work but I was impressed with my summation. I liked it enough that I tried to do it this year—and failed! At least I did not fail as badly as I did last year. "Re: Some Delicate Detective Work" was my ONLY post for the WdC 21st Birthday Masquerade Party.  My lack of participation last year had prompted me to plan to take time off work this year. I had intended to at least take the first week of September off but I did not get to do that because of the mess with my license and my lack of work in July. I did my best to post this year but a horrible thing happened... Actually, it wasn't a horrible thing. It was a wonderful thing but it had a disastrous affect on my own participation. The guest were writing, writing, writing—storylines galore. I could not keep up with the suspects much less everyone else! Then I made my most serious mistake: I thought the party lasted THREE WEEKS. I was planning on coming back after my nights working and catch up on my reading and interacting. I came back and discovered "Congratulations!" by Brooke is plotting.  . Brooke was announcing the winner—and it wasn't me.  What did I do? I (Jessica) called Seth: "Jessica missed the end of the party this year..." and then closed with "Re: just wait til next year..." .What am I doing now? Well, I am waiting for next year's party. Hopefully, I will have more time and energy next year. I also need to ramp up my creativity if I am to keep up with the clever folks who write, write, write with such amazing imaginations! For the moment, I have moved on to "I Write: Enter the Second Decade" . I needed to have two green entries. This entry might be a bit odd but it was all I could muster right now.If you are my "I Write" reviewer, I have sympathy for you. You can see how Sum1 handled reviewing a similar entry: Review of "ruwth is writing..."  . If you visit the many links, let me know—that would definitely earn you a merit badge! ~ ~ ~ JESUS is LORD! ~ ~ ~ Footnotes |
Inspired by the song Ironic by Alanis Morissette. ("Note: 48-HOUR CHALLENGE : Media Prompt Deadl...") The very first thing that came to my mind was Beaufort, South Carolina, summer of 1974. I was 22 that year, a single mom with two little kids and a full ride to the University of South Carolina. My major was psychology. I had straight A's. My books, tuition and childcare paid for. But, when I was heading to class, my friends were heading to the beach. I could have easily lived on the beach, salty wind blowing through my hair. But, I was plugging along studying—for a while. Until a thought presented itself in my mind's eye. I saw myself down the road, after years of not going to the beach, I finally had my diploma in hand—only to get hit by a Mack truck and die. I made the decision it was not worth the sacrifice. I quit school and headed to the beach... Ironic, isn't it? ~ ~ ~ JESUS is LORD! ~ ~ ~ |
| A blackout poem is when a poet takes a marker to already established text and starts redacting words until a poem is formed. The key thing with a blackout poem is that the text AND redacted text form a sort of visual poem. You might call mine a grey-out poem. The redacted words are in a grey font. The lines of the poem are in bolded grape. My Black-Out Poem: John quotes Jesus as saying: “Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.When the Spirit of truth comes,he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you." Original quoted from the English Standard Version of the Bible. The 7 lines of the poem: I tell you the truth the Helper will convict the world you will see me no longer I still have things to say the Spirit of truth will glorify me, he will take what is mine and he will declare it to you. ~ ~ ~ JESUS is LORD! ~ ~ ~ Prompt: Find a form of poetry you've never written before and both describe it and write an example. Form chosen: Black-Out Poetry. Written for "The Whatever Contest."  "The Whatever Contest -- Closed for Now" Line Count:7 lines |
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