Tag Archives: Friendship

“Hope” for SOCS, Sept 5, 2025

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I can’t resist reblogging this blog I wrote in 2016 for the SOCS Saturday prompt, which is “Begins with ho.” After the poem, there are additional links that finish the tale if you have the patience to read them.

Hope

IMG_5964Hope wears a white apron and a pensive smile!

Hope

I hope life turns out as you wish and is a bowl of cherries.
I hope you find a run of luck and that it never varies.
The whole world would be lucky, if I had my “druthers.”
Every line would catch a fish. All orphans would find mothers.
All endings would be happy. All lottery tickets win.
But as I stop to think of it, I have to think again.
If all of us were winners, winning would lose its distinction.
Every hunter bagging game would lead to their extinction.
It seems that often one guy’s luck brings bad luck to another.
If you’re the family favorite, then it cannot be your brother!
So if I must express my hopes I guess that I’ll just say
I hope that when it is your turn, good luck will come your way!

Now I have to tell the story about my camera, which showed up missing (oxymoron) the day after I’d met friends in the Ajijic plaza coffee place. I’d run a number of errands that day, and so after I had searched my house for over an hour, and my car, and my garden, I headed off for town. Was it at the coffee place? No. Either of the stores I’d visited? No. I headed down the street to Ajijic Tango, where I’d had comida with my friends. All locked up. Seeing a door ajar a few yards away from the entrance, I called into it. It must be the kitchen. I called and called and finally someone came. I gave them a note asking the owner to call me.Then I went home.

A day or so ago I wrote about a friend in Missouri who tends to straighten out my life for me on a regular basis? Well, I wrote to him bemoaning the fate of my camera. Within the hour, he had sent me a link to a local message board and lo and behold–there was a picture of my living room with friends I’d invited to a viewing of the new documentary of another friend all sitting in it! A picture that had been in my camera! Turns out the lady pictured above had been approached by a man who tried to sell her a camera. “He asked too much” she said in her message, which stated that when she’d inspected the camera, she had surreptitiously removed the sd card from the camera as well as three more in the pouch of the carrying case, then posted one of the pictures on the card in hopes of finding the owner.

Did she know the man who had the camera? She did. Long story short, she went to his house to ask about the camera. Sadly, he reported, it had stopped working. (He still didn’t realize she’d taken the sd cards out. Brilliant move on her part.) Did he still have the camera? No, he had given it to his son, who, it turned out, worked in the restaurant next to where I must have lost my camera! After a few more trips to enquire on her part, the next morning I recovered my camera from the son, giving him a good reward, although he didn’t ask. I then recovered my four sd cards from the angel pictured above and gave her a reward as well, in spite of her protests. And that is how my Music Man in Missouri once more came to my aid and turned disaster into luck. (If you regularly read my blog, you might have guessed that I cannot survive without my camera.) What does this story have to do with hope? Simply that I hope if you ever lose anything dear to you that you have two angels looking over you as I did!!!

Campfire, For The Sunday Whirl Wordle 666

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Campfire

As we gather in the gloaming to shed the day’s despair,
the flickering wings of firelight heat up the evening air.
Good omens dispel shadows and chase away the dark
as the laughter of our comrades drowns out the wild beast’s bark.
In this camaraderie—friendship’s surrounding bubble,
thoughts of ghosts and demons are unfathomable.
At the end of day, this gathering’s a cunning
way to celebrate the end of a day of sunning.
Cool night soothes sunburned skin, providing us the balm
of release from labor and a welcome to the calm
arms of night that furnishes a cradle to the day
and a time to tuck its problems all away,
first in conversation with those who love us most,
and then in sleep, that afterwards is our loving host.

An ominous number breeds ominous words! The Word prompts for Wordle 666 are: demons, wings, flickering, heat, omen, dark, end, cunning, shadows, unfathomable, gloaming, despair. I have tried to try to counter their obvious intent  in my poem.

Here is some information about how the number 666 came to be the “number of the beast.”

*The number 666 is identified as the Number of the Beast (Satan) as mentioned in the Book of Revelation (13:15–18).

*An interesting sideline to the number 666 is this: “On Friday, the Dow Jones industrial average plummeted 666 points. And while that news might be disturbing in a financial way, to people with an interest in, say, money and American markets, that fact was overshadowed on Twitter by the shadow of the beast, the Lord of the Underworld, the Devil himself. Because, you know, 666 is the mark of the beast, which, no big deal, identifies followers of the Antichrist.”
— Lizzy Acker, OregonLive.com, 2 Feb. 2018

*And this: “Preterist theologians typically support the interpretation that 666 is the numerical equivalent of the name and title Nero Caesar (Roman Emperor 54–68 AD). Written in Aramaic, this can be valued at 666 using the Hebrew numerology of gematria, and was used to secretly speak against the emperor.”

So, in writing this poem, I’ve tried to turn 666 on its head and to transform it into 999. If you Google that number, this is what you will find:

  • Angel number

    In numerology, 999 is a repeating number that some say is a sign from the universe, ancestors, or spirit guides. It can symbolize completion and new beginnings, and can have different meanings depending on the area of life it’s applied to:

    • Relationships: Old loves may reappear, but the romance may be ill-fated. It can also mean bringing closure to relationships and making way for new opportunities.
    • Career: It can signal a crossroads professionally, with new job opportunities or projects in your current workplace. It can also mean accepting the outcome, whatever it may be.
    • General: It can mean trusting the process of how your life is shaping out, and not getting caught up in drama. It can also be a reminder to connect with your higher self and explore your spiritual journey more deeply.

    The photo is actually a photo I took of a campfire where friends met to share music and poetry. I have always wondered if the shape of the fire at this point didn’t spell out a word in Hebrew or some other unknown (to me) language. What do you see in the flame?

 

The Nature of True Friendship: Wordle 577 for The Sunday Whirl

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The Nature of True Friendship

Guard yourself from thoughtless friends
with egos based on their own ends
who won’t forgive your need to grow
in areas where they won’t go.

The pot calling the kettle black,
they say that loyalty you lack,
not trusting that new paths you find
do not mean you’ll leave them behind.

That willow’s breath of inspiration
brought to us by education
shifts our focus here and there,
like a hound who sniffs the air

and desiring game of a new kind,
forsakes old spoor to track the hind.
But, given time to track and roam,
returns back to his hearth and home.

 

Prompt words for The Sunday Whirl this week are: yourself guard trust pot thought kind  ego focus end forgive. Image by Jessica Anderson on Unsplash.

Network

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Network

One who lives in isolation is only half alive.
We must generate a union if we’re going to survive.
Though it is true the fanciful may take this to extremes
and gallivant to excess, nonetheless it surely seems
that excellence in socializing might extend one’s life,
for nothing gets us through in a time of pain and strife
like family and friends. Perhaps one reason for our being
includes being seen as much as in our seeing.

Prompt words are fanciful, generate, excellence, gallivant and union.

Opposites Attract.

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Opposites Attract

They had a transitory friendship.  In class, it was effusive,
but once out of the classroom it tended toward abusive.
Teachers provided discipline that they lacked otherwise.
They needed supervision to deal with the surprise
they felt when their thoughts differed—to control their yin and yang.
Somehow, self-moderation simply was not their “thang.”
Differences enrich us. They expand our point of view.
They teach us how to listen while buffering the “you.”
Show our differences and likenesses with the ultimate end
of taking an acquaintance and making them a friend.

 

Prompts for today are friend, transitory, effusive and classroom.

Former

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Former

We follow different orbits. We dislike each other’s friends.
When we are together, the confusion never ends.
Though I respect your choices, I fear they’re never mine.
I’ve strolled a crooked pathway. You’re rarely out of line.

You have a place within my heart but we rarely phone.
We each chose a direction and wandered off alone
collecting lives around us where the other does not fit.
We’ve analyzed our friendship and found the end of it.

Have we made the right decision, or should friendship never end?
Is it wrong to leave old friends behind as we round the bend?
It’s hard to keep momentum when pulling a long train,
and holding onto everyone we’ve once loved is inane.

When you’ve somehow lost the trust that you thought would last forever,
and when you’re simply bored by one you once found fun and clever,
sometimes we have to face the fact we’ve loved someone in vain
and all the joys we shared are ones we will not share again.

 

 

Prompts for today are lost, orbit, trust and dislike.

Friendship

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Friendship is one of those miracles like theater, where one person inspires another to act a finer role than that he might otherwise accomplish.

 

The prompt words today were friendship, theater, inspiring and miracle.

https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2018/12/05/rdp-wednesday-friendship/
https://fivedotoh.com/2018/12/05/fowc-with-fandango-theater/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2018/12/05/inspiring/
https://onedailyprompt.wordpress.com/2018/12/05/your-daily-word-prompt-miracle-December-5-2018/

Awarded

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Awarded

Transforming an opponent from a rival to a friend
might not affect the outcome of who wins out in the end.
Whatever escapade you face—
what bout or match or game or race—
your gains can’t be identical. The trophy you may lack.
You might not be the leader of the athletic pack,
but you’ll still be a winner when all is said and done,
for though you’ve lost the race, it is a comrade that you’ve won.

 

The prompts  today are: friend, opponent, escapade and identical. Here are the links:
https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2018/10/25/rdp-thursday-friend/
https://fivedotoh.com/2018/10/25/fowc-with-fandango-opponent/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2018/10/25/escapade
https://dailyaddictions542855004.wordpress.com/2018/10/21/daily-addictions-2018-week-42/identical

Good Taste

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Good Taste

It was an ongoing debate
that never tended to abate.
One friend was too prone to oration
concerning the education
of her friend much given to
items that were too frou-frou:
clothing full of frills and ruching,
fluffy pillows good for smooshing,
carved furniture too ornate.
She feared bad taste would be her fate
forever unless she stepped in 
to counteract what might have been. 

She tried to teach her friend restraint
in ornaments and clothes and paint.
She tended to excoriate
items that were too ornate, 
curbing her psychedelic bent
while showing her what Bauhaus meant.
She declared ruffled skirts too silly,
weeding out what was too frilly.
And though her friend declared it wasteful, 
she threw out all that was not tasteful.
Ignoring her friend’s deep depression
as she culled out each possession.

She honed her house goods, cleared her shelves,
deprived her yard of frogs and elves.
Gave her flamingos to Good Will,
banned nicknacks on her window sill.
So finally, when she was through
relieving her of garish hue,
replacing all her things with new,
the friend knew what she had to do.
Her belongings spare, her wardrobe small,
her house was sparse, from wall-to-wall.
The most that she could say of it
was it was tasteful, but lacking wit.

‘Til when the culling was all ended,
the one thing left that still offended
was the friend who had advised her.
By the end, how she despised her.
So, with her training in good taste,
she acted now in confidant haste.
She first picked up, quickly upending
one last thing that needed tending—
dragged it clear across the floor
and tossed it out of her front door.
And that is how it came to pass
she pitched her friend out on her ass!

For more examples of extreme bad taste, go to A Visit to the Weird.

For Daily Addictions: Ornate.

Who Walks into Your Life

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Some force that is called Karma by some, fate, coincidence or synchronicity by others, and God, Allah or The Great Spirit by others, determines who walks into your life. But it’s up to you to decide whom you let walk away, whom you let stay, or whom you refuse to let go.

 

IMG_1266The prompt today was  coincidence.