She’s Back! – Thankful Thursday

So I saw my sister (the one just older than me) yesterday for the first time all summer! I’ve never gone so long without seeing one of my siblings. (Except for the time my eldest sister lived in Hawaii while she got her degree and then lived with her husband in Cambodia and my second eldest sister was in the Army or that time my older brother was on his mission over in Louisiana…)

Anyway, I’ve never been so long without seeing one of the siblings that’s on the end of the groupd of kids born like me. I really missed her and was really excited to see her.

So today, I’m just grateful she’s home from New York. As a special, I’m spotlighting her blog over on Weebly, it’s Musings of a woman. Go check it out as she’s included posts and pictures from her time away this summer.

Have a lovely day, all and make sure to check out the original Thankful Thursday over at Momdeaver. (I’ll switch it to this week’s post as soon as it goes up and I’m on the computer at the same time. This day is going to be super busy, but all of my Thursdays are ending up like that this month…)

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So Angry I Forgot Why I Was Angry

The hardest part about the kids cleaning the kitchen every night is when they get into arguments over the littlest of things. Sometimes they get so into the argument that when someone comes over to help break up the fight and ask what caused it this happens:

“Um.”

“Well, you see it’s like this-”

“This is what happened-”

“It was because of her!”

“-no it was because of him!”

“What was the fight even about?”

Long pause as everyone looks anywhere but at the adult.

“You don’t remember do you?”

Little nods as eye contact is still studiously avoided.

Remember… – Thankful Thursday

Have you ever sat and wondered at all the things people take for granted?

Have you ever thought of the things you, yourself, take for granted? The people?

I have. I’ve found myself sitting sometimes thinking, “Why did I do that? What was wrong with me?”

So just, for a moment, remember.

Remember that dog that slept nearby so you wouldn’t feel alone.

image: Sissy and my eldest nephews

Remember that animals want some cuddling on the couch too.

image: Cotton and Granny

Remember that cat that wanted to share the massage roll.

image: Cotton and Granny

Remember the first time the cat and the dog got along.

image: Sissy and Usako

Don’t forget the little moments that made the big moments possible.

Make sure to check out the original Thankful Thursday.

(All pictures from martha0stout’s phone.)

Healing Love

Hurts amass over time,

I‘d like to think that I more sturdy than most.

Don’t forget that you will always carry

Disaster hiding in plain sight.

Everything has to begin somewhere.

Now will you ignore your scars, or respect them?

 

How is it that you come along

Even when my pains not gone

And hold me safe inside your arms

Letting love heal all my harms.

Even when I shout and cry

Really you are my favorite guy.

 

She wasn’t quite sure how to feel so she just sat there, tears streaming silently down her face. The ring that had held a place of pride on her hand now sat in her hand, the cold of the metal seeming to dull the gem that had previously shined in delight.

The door to her room opened and the pitter-patter of feet moving softly over the carpet came to a halt by her bedside. A plate was placed gently on the end table and the bed dipped as an arm came up and around her shoulders.

She said nothing as a hand gently guided her face onto a stronger shoulder and she cried out her sorrows on the shoulder of her brother.

The pie on the plate sat a silent testament to how well he knew her heart.

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Both parts inspired in equal parts from Light and Shade Challenge from yesterday and the Dungeon Prompt from last Thursday.

Sister Starts – Thankful Thursday

Today I am grateful for many things, but mostly I’m grateful that I’m still here and that I have my family with me. Today is a little different because today is sort of the day that we begin.

It’s not my parents’ anniversary, it’s not the day they met. No, today is different.

Today is the day that my eldest sister, the first of my parents’ children, was born. We, the children (or the Siblings, as we call each other now that there are children running around our feet too) began today and we lasted a good long while (my parents had children for over a decade).

But my eldest sister was the first.

 

So I am grateful for her, even when we don’t get along and we just want to throttle one another, I love her and am thankful for what she has taught me throughout my life. (She is the reason I know how to do hair in any way, though I still have a lot of practice to do.)

Look for the original Thankful Thursday here: http://mithriluna.wordpress.com/2014/05/29/thankful-thursday-a-bright-future/

Familial Friends

He hadn’t been in her life very long.

Well, ‘very long’ didn’t mean quite the same thing to her as it did to him, but that wasn’t the point.

The point was, Mary hadn’t known Alex even nearly as long as some of her ‘short term’ friends or acquaintances back home, but he was already a very important part of her life. So that meant that his opinions were also very important to her.

“I can’t believe you said yes!”

Of course, he was also prone to overreacting in some cases, and she hadn’t quite learned how to calm him down quickly enough for her tastes.

“Alex-”

“You barely even know him!”

“Alex-”

“What possessed you to say yes?”

“Alex-”

“I mean, there’s no possible way that he is ever going to be good enough-”

“ALEX!”

Alex’s mouth shut with a click.

“Thank you. I realize that you are worried, but there is no cause for concern-”

“No cause-!” He started up again, but quickly stopped when he saw the look on her face.

“I know that you are worried, but I’m also aware that you’ve already ‘researched’ everything there is to know about Warren and if you really were against me knowing him, you’d have found some way to make him disappear.”

Alex looked slightly uncomfortable, “I wouldn’t have made it a permanent one unless he really deserved it…”

Mary nodded her auburn head, “Which is one of the reasons why I didn’t have too much of a problem with you looking into his past. The point is, I said yes. It is my decision and I have made it. Now, are you going to be an adult about this and accept my decision or should I find some way to drown you out for the next few hours?”

Alex pouted, “I don’t know why you’re always treating me like a child. I am older than you.”

“You appear older, that is all and you know it.”

Alex rolled his eyes and plopped himself down on the sofa across from her. “As far as anyone is legally concerned, I am the older one and that is what we decided to stick to-”

“What you decided.” she muttered playfully, knowing that she had won.

“-and so it makes no difference to bring anything up otherwise. Now,” Alex’s eyes began to sparkle, “Have you decided on a date yet?”

Mary groaned and put her head in her hands as Alex started talking about wedding preparations.

---

Inspired by Suzie81’s weekly word challenge: http://suzie81speaks.com/2014/05/18/weekly-word-challenge-friendship/#like-14158

I just couldn’t get this little conversation out of my mind once I read the prompt! Don’t worry, Alex and Warren will have their little moment as well!

Never Over – Poetry Prompt 16

So that time is almost over again!

Come see the end of what we began.

How those days dragged on,

Or in the blink of an eye, they were gone.

Only now that I look back

Longing shows me what I lack.

Best days of my life.

Don’t forget walking between classes with friends.

Always remember that I learned from the ends,

Yet remember that those days are now gone.

So keep in mind what you had all along.

---

Written for Pooky’s Prompt for yesterday: http://pookypoetry.wordpress.com/2014/05/16/poetry-prompt-16-school-days/

School had a lot of interesting phases for me. Elementary school was a time of bullies and learning not to let the other kids get to me while also learning everything else. Middle school was about learning that people might still try to bully you, but that they lacked the imagination of kids in the younger grades (still don’t know why that was), but also learning that everything I learned in elementary school had a lot more to teach me while making me learn to accept that each teacher has a different set of rules. High school taught me that things are going to be hard, some times will be harder than others, but that it’s worth the end goal of being able to walk down that aisle with my friends and throw a cap in the air. (It also didn’t matter which cap you picked up from the floor at the end, because they were all the same, no one wrote their names in them. We were all the same in the end even while the cords on our robes were all so different.)

School was a fun learning experience and I really enjoyed it except for a few times and incidents, but I learned that even those will only last so long. There is always going to be more to life and it will come along at random and inconvenient times and I just have to live with it. Complaining takes too much time and energy, but it also has it’s time and place. I also learned that everyone can take a refresher course when their kids (or their siblings’ kids) need help with their homework.

Random Moment of Worry and Fun

There was so much that she could do and so much that she couldn’t do.

“This isn’t something I can ignore, Mary, you know that.” Alex said as he sat opposite her in her parlor. “What if he decides that the information about what you can do is more important than you are?”

“Warren isn’t like that, Alex.” Mary protested, interrupting her adoptive brother before he could continue. “He isn’t going to try and turn me into some kind of lab rat.”

“How do you know that?” Alex demanded, “Just because you’ve started to ‘fall in love’ with him doesn’t mean-”

“Alex,” she interrupted again in a much quieter voice, “I know that you worry about me and I know that you’re just concerned that Warren will do to you what you’ve done in your youth.” She held up a hand before Alex could do more than open his mouth, “No, I know that you’re not like that anymore, not really, but that’s not what people see anymore. All they see when they see you is someone whose made a lot of mistakes and that can’t possibly turn himself around. Warren even saw you like that when he first discovered that I was under your protection, but he doesn’t think that of you anymore.”

“And how can you know so much about Warren, Mary?”

She smiled, “It’s something about what I am, and no,” she continued when she read the look on his face, “It’s not that I can read his mind, but I can sort of…infer…what his intentions are towards me. It has something to do with the-”

“You don’t need to tell me how or why you can do that, Marry,” Alex sighed tiredly, “I know that you’re just trying to distract me with science.”

“Is it working?”

“No, stop trying to distract me.”

“It is working.” Mary sounded quite pleased with herself.

Alex had to remind himself that it was his idea to adopt her as his sister, his younger sister, and that this was apparently how she treated siblings. He wondered if this was how she’d treated her twin at all.

(He had no idea that part of the reason Mary was acting like this was because it reminded her of her lost sister. Mary was so used to being the serious sibling that acting differently reminded her of what she’d lost, but it made her happy to have a reminder. Mary’s sister had lost more than Mary had, at least Mary was certain that this was how she felt and if acting like this occasionally helped her to feel closer to her… Mary was more than willing to give Alex premature grey hair. He’d understand in time.)

---

Written for the Random Moment of Delight prompt for this week: http://firebonnet.com/2014/05/11/random-moments-of-delight-19-meet-my-bff/

This is the scene that came to mind as I was reading another blogger’s post for this week’s prompt (http://eclecticoddsnsods.com/2014/05/11/random-moment-of-delight-19-tears-ahoy/comment-page-1/#comment-3855).

So here is a random moment between the adoptive siblings Mary and Alex in my Former Guardian universe.

Lazy Teen – Day Sixteen

Had enough time for everything,

Never on the run.

Plenty of time for fun,

More time for myself

Reading books upon my shelf.

No worries or cares,

Don’t really have to share.

Selfish with my time,

Could turn around on the dime.

This was my life at sixteen.

---

Written for today’s NaPoWriMo prompt (http://www.napowrimo.net/2014/04/day-sixteen/) and for today’s Daily Post prompt (https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/only-sixteen/).

Life at sixteen was very different for me compared to my friends. At first there were only five in my house (my mother, older sister, younger sister, younger brother and me) then my second eldest sister, who was pregnant at the time, moved back in with her two small children (toddlers, one could walk…sort of). This was only slightly strange for me because I was used to lots of people in the house (I am six of eight), but I was used to being amongst the youngest group, not the eldest.

I’d never really had a curfew before that and the only reason we had one after was because sound carried in our house. If you came home and were just slightly too loud, you woke the children (and eventually, the baby) which would then wake the whole house. No one was happy about that so it was decided by all that a curfew for everyone would be set and it would be enforced by the fact that if you woke the children up (one or all three) then you had to put them to sleep by yourself. (It was considered fair by everyone.)

Life has never been the same since, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Inaction to Decision

Sometimes the sun goes ’round the moon.

There isn’t a lot left to do,

He’s been found again and again.

Even more ripples in the sand, growing and growing and growing.

 

Before it all they’d been so close,

Even apart they’d known they were united.

Siblings in all but blood,

Their souls knew one another as soon as their eyes met.

You wondered how you’d make it through.

For years and years they fought side by side

Only for it to change in the blink of an eye;

Right and wrong changed in his mind.

 

Lost and confused, he didn’t know which way to turn.

A far away dream or the life he’d always had?

Silly though it may seem, he found this life was not

The one for him; he chose to drift away.

But now we’re standing face-to-face.

Years went by and she did not stay his hand

Only stepped in after the damage was done,

Undoing what she could and mourning what she can’t.

 

When finally she was there, catching him in the act.

Events slowed to a crawl and his face morphed from glee to disdain.

Not going to stop me? he asked, taunting her with her inabiltiy.

The moment passed and steel encased her heart.

Just when I thought our chance had passed.

Anceint responsibilites flooded her mind and she knew she could

Never let him complete another actions like this.

Don’t think, she spoke with ice, that inaction equals inability.

 

Silvery light tinged red flooded her hands

And a sword sharp and ready grew within the plam.

Vengence was not on her mind as she swing the blade

Even though this man in front had killed her brother before all else.

Deadened eyes still wept as the dance of death began.

You go and save the best for last.

-Vanessa Williams

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Inspired by the song “Save the Best for Last” by Vanessa Williams running through my head all morning. It would not leave me alone and this story/poem demanded to be written as a result.

Also, I’m slightly mourning the lack of Trifectra prompt/challenge for this week even though I understand the reasons behind it closing.