It is Christmas day and I want to say to all those lovely bloggers out there all over the world who read my posts A Very Happy Christmas. Whether or not you celebrate Christmas I want to wish you be blessed, safe and healthy.
Well it’s been a strange year hasn’t it. Full of hardship and problems for all. I imagine you could stop anyone on the street, in any town, city or village in any country or continent and they would have a tale of woe to share with you. So many people have died from the carrona virus. So many people still don’t know how they will be affected by long covid. We lost my mother in law to covid in early June, not long after her 100th birthday.
Then I fell ill, and was in and out of hospital until 27th November when I had an operation. During that time I had a cholosectomy drain and bag for four months. Recently our middle son has contracted covid. He is hopefully on the mend. We have had many other problems this year but that’s just the way it is.
We have had two lockdowns, a first and second wave of covid. We are now in a worse position than ever with two new variants rampaging around and cases and deaths going through the roof . Businesses have crashed, people have lost their jobs, their homes, loved ones…it’s a nightmare. It’s taking much longer than anyone thought. I will not mention governments or leaders who could of done better, by name, they know who they are.
Now Christmas has been curtailed. Where I live we are in tier four which is the highest tier. We personally can not see our children or grandchildren this year and that’s the same for most of us…the sensible ones, the ones who care about others and the rest of the world. Some will ignore the rules and be selfish. Aprantly after Christmas a lot more areas will be going into tier four. It’s not easy and there will be more hardship for all.
Throughout this year front line workers have done a sterling job of being there for us all, over the world. To all of them I say THANK YOU.
We will be cooking an extra meal for our son who has covid and drive it over to his home. We will leave it outside his front door and wave to him through his window. We will also video call him and our other two sons, daughter in law and grandchildren..a little together time, apart.
Well now I hope you all have the best Christmas you can , let’s count our blessings. Maybe this pandemic can teach us that love, kindness and compassion are not just for Christmas or any festival , no those things are for every day. I am looking forward to a hug, a touch and being able to be with family and friends so here’s to the vaccine and better times. Love you all.
Ronovan said : You may, if you wish, make some kind of link between the Haiku Challenge prompt of (MAD and Sane) which and this Décima Challenge of GIFT in the B rhyme line. This means you could write a haiku post using the prompt words. Then do a Décima post using this week’s prompt uniting the two with a common message.
The 2 CHALLENGES are SEPARATE but CAN BE combined if YOU CHOOSE to do so. I chose to do so. Here is the link to my Haiku.
The gift of madness.
Image from Pixabay.
Corridors full of empty souls Dancing but their spirits won’t lift. Sanity is not ours to gift Lost forever all youthful goals Here hope is gone it downhill rolls. Screaming inside, making no sound Dancing in circles round and round. Foresake all hope of leaving here. Keeping guard, surrounded by fear. We’re all lost never to be found.
The priory on the Rim of was the last of it’s kind almost forgotten by the rest of creation. …but not quite!
Stay away from the windows she had been told by grandfather and by Mother Superior both. They had impressed upon her the importance of her presence being there was to be a secret. The Nuns were all delightful and so kind but they, being a silent order could only speak to her between the hours of six and eight pm. So even though they did their best to entertain their guest she was lonely.
She spent her days , happily in the priory and it’s gardens, the smell of the strange flowers native to Io calming and soothing her. Her nights she was enthralled by the other three Galilean moons that orbit Jupiter.
Keep away from the windows at night they all told her, you must not be seen. Your condition will give you away.
She did try but the spectacular light that was generated by Io and the other three moons of Jupiter was enthralling.
Stay away from the windows they had begged her but the lights already had a hold on her.
And so it was that she , the last pregnant woman in the Universe, the last pregnant woman in thirty years stood at the window watching the lights washing over Io.
Sadly the bounty hunters from Mars saw her at the window, they saw her long hair and pregnant belly, too young, too beautiful to be an ancient Nun.
What future the Universe the only pregnant woman in thirty years held to ransom. All because she could not resist looking out the window.
This week’s prompt ~ for Sue Vincent’s #writephoto. Clouded. Written Earlier this year.
For visually challenged writers, theimage shows a landscape of green moorland and hills, with a pool of water near rocks in the foreground and a heavy bank of white cloud rolling in and masking the horizon.
The hills rolled on forever, dark foreboding. Clouds rolling in from the west carring rain or worse snow, she could smell it. The whole of the land was shrouded in fear. It had been days since she had seen another living being of her kind and she could not dismiss the feeling that she alone.
There was no way out she had tried. The hills became too steep, the river too fast and the boarder along the eastside too heavily guarded by humans. There was no escape while she was in this wounded condition. Eventually she would run out of places to hide and they would find her.
Slowly she turned and padded back to the cave, she would have her pups in a few weeks and by the time they were grown and strong enough she would be able to lead them out of this place . Her strength would have returned and her wounds healed.
For now this was her prison and her sanctuary , she was safe for now how ever clouded her future .
I do not want to upset anyone but as we draw near to Rememberance Day I just wanted to share my feelings on the poppies we wear. I wrote this back in 2018.
There are more than one, these days, the red to remember the dead, the white for peace. The white to remember the conscientious objector. During WW1 and WW2 many thought these men were cowards. I do feel they were brave, enough to stand up for their beliefs. Many were tried and shot for not taking up arms. Many spent the war as medics and stretcher bearers unarmed or in the mines though of course not all wartime miners were objctors.
What ever you think, the wars killed them irrespective of their principles. I respect the Red and the White.
The Red and the White.
Why
Argue
Both were brave
Each had their own
Principles to up
Hold. Neither less than bold.
One would carry a weapon
The other a stretcher, no gun
Both men died for their own held beliefs
They were both lost and that loss brought much grief.
———
Then there is the Purple Poppy in remembrance of all the animals who died in service during conflicts and serve with us still in modern conflicts.
They pulled the gun carriages until they dropped
They carried messages and they got shot.
They search out the unexploded mines
They save lives a thousand times.
Spare a thought for the horse, pigeon, donkey dog and many more
Today is my brother in law’s Birthday. He probably doesn’t know it because he has Alzheimer’s/ Dementia.
My sister looked after him at home for as long as she could but he is now in a home, his condition got too difficult for her to cope with.
I have written quite a few poems on his and others sharing this plight. In his honour and all carers and sufferers I have taken two of my poems and reworked them into one.
