Day: March 21, 2019

MLMM Tale Weaver — On Being Alone

Fandango5 Comments

85276352-8F69-404F-B1FB-8CB081B2449D“Aren’t you lonely?” Diane asked her mother. “Ever since Dad died, you’re always alone. It’s not healthy, Mom.”

“First of all, sweetie,” Jennifer said, “I’m not ‘always alone.’ You’re here and we’re having lunch together.”

“Mom, you know that’s not what I meant.”

“Second of all,” Jennifer continued, ignoring her daughter’s interruption. “Being alone and being lonely are two very different things. Before your father died, I was almost never alone, but I was almost always lonely.”

“I don’t understand,” Diane said.

“Being alone is a state of being, honey, while being lonely is a state of mind. Your father and I lived in the same house, slept in the same bed, and were physically together almost constantly. But to be honest with you, I felt smothered by him.”

“But you loved each other, didn’t you?”

“Of course we loved each other,” Jennifer said, “but there’s an old saying, ‘familiarity breeds contempt.’ So while we were always together, we barely communicated and ultimately grew apart.”

“Oh, Mom, I had no idea.”

“Yes, we hid it well,” Jennifer admitted. “But being alone, Diane, isn’t just doing things by yourself, it’s also doing things for yourself. I started a blog and I have hundreds of followers from all around the world, people that I call my friends. I have started writing poetry again for the first time since college, and I’ve even begun doing some sketching and painting.

Mom, that’s amazing. I’m so incredibly happy for you.”

“Yes, being alone is not necessarily being lonely,” Jennifer said. “In fact, I think that being alone can be the most empowering experience of your life.”

Written for this week’s Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie Tale Weaver prompt.

Afternoon Delight

Fandango5 Comments

9AD6A719-1DD2-445D-8052-7D125D986746“You are one royal pain in my ass,” Sam said to his wife.

“Listen,” Tina said, “your cholesterol levels are creeping up since your last physical exam and your doctor told you that you need to start eating healthier and getting more exercise.”

“Exercise?” Sam said, getting a playful look on his face. “You know what my favorite exercise is, don’t you babe?”

“Give it a rest, you old fart,” Tina laughed. “You ain’t the stud you think you are.”

“Oh come on, babe,” Sam said. “I know how much you like a little afternoon delight every now and then. Besides, I’ve been symptom-free since the bypass surgery.

“Fine,” Tina said, “but I’m on top. I don’t want you to have another heart attack and pin me underneath that overweight body of yours again like you did last time.”

Written for these daily prompts: Your Daily Word Prompt (royal), Ragtag Daily Prompt (exercise), Word of the Day Challenge (rest), and Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (symptom).

100WW — We Have Each Other

Fandango10 Comments

9CDC17CA-5D80-417C-AB13-C45EAF900045“Your mother was unhappy, Clair, but it had nothing to do with you,” her father said. “Sometimes people, even those who love each other, drift apart. They develop new interests, have different needs.”

“Will she ever be coming back?” Clair asked.

“I don’t know, honey, but I wouldn’t count on it,” he said. “She found another man who made her feel better about herself and decided that she’d rather be with him than with me.”

“And she’d rather be with him than with me, too,” Clair said.

“We’ll be okay, honey,” he said. “We have each other and this place.”

(100 Words)

Written for this week’s 100 Word Wednesday prompt from Bikurgurl. Her photo this week has the same scene as last week’s 100 Word Wednesday prompt, but with two different people in the scene. She wanted to see, if given the same scene but with different people, we would find provocation for a different story. My two stories certainly are different. If you’re interested, HERE is the post I wrote last week.

FOWC with Fandango — Symptom

Fandango25 Comments

FOWCWelcome to March 21, 2019 and to Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (aka, FOWC). It’s designed to fill the void after WordPress bailed on its daily one-word prompt.

I will be posting each day’s word just after midnight Pacific Time (US).

Today’s word is “symptom.”

Write a post using that word. It can be prose, poetry, fiction, non-fiction. It can be any length. It can be just a picture or a drawing if you want. No holds barred, so to speak.

Once you are done, tag your post with #FOWC and create a pingback to this post if you are on WordPress. Or you can simply include a link to your post in the comments.

And be sure to read the posts of other bloggers who respond to this prompt. You will marvel at their creativity.