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Daily Post Prompt: Desert

| Sandra Pavloff Conner

DESERT MINE

You say you just can’t trust my love is true.
So I am meditating what to do.
Somehow, I think there’s no convincing you
That I’m the faithful type all through and through.

How to forestall your fears I wish I knew,
I’ve had myself in such a miserable stew.
But I’ve brought it down to this: Here’s what I’d do.
I’d cross the desert on a three-legged mule for you.

And if that’s not good enough, my dear — I’m through!

~~~
Okay, I know it’s a ridiculous poem, but I didn’t get started until late in the afternoon, and it’s the best I could come up with. If you want to participate in today’s prompt, drop in at The Daily Post.

 

~

Prompt Nights # 21: Dancing

| Sandra Pavloff Conner

To take part in this writing challenge, visit “A Dash of Sunny.”

 

THE DANCE HAS ENDED
ANTEBELLUM MANSION - WOODLANDS - BONNIE BLUE PUB FREE CLIP ART

I wish I could dance in your arms again,
As we did in Richmond and drank champagne,
Before you left for the battle’s fray,
Handsome and sure in your rebel gray,
Proud to be a Confederate son,
Anxious to get the victory won.

I wish I could dance in your arms again
And hear once more the song’s refrain,
And feel your breath on my blushing cheek.
How often my heart those memories seeks.
Those glorious antebellum days
Are gone — with all their gracious ways.

For guns and spears and rivers of blood —
Though all were spent — yielded no good.
And in those brutal wounds of war
The truth at last we finally saw:
Our gallant men and Southland slain.
I’ll never dance in your arms again.

I wish I could dance in your arms again.

~~~

Photo courtesy of Bonnie Blue Publishing Free Confederate Clip Art

 

 

 

Leg-Shackled

| Sandra Pavloff Conner

 

BALL & CHAIN FREE CLIP ART
freeclipartnow.com

Nathaniel was feeling quite blue.
To his Darling, he’d been quite untrue.
Though he hadn’t been caught,
With his conscience he fought,
And was trying to think what to do.

He could keep it a secret from her.
If she questioned him, maybe defer.
But if someone else told —
Some old gossip quite bold —
Then his Darling would toss him for sure.

What to do, what to do — so distressed.
It was not that he loved Darling best.
But she had lots of dough,
And his coffers were low.
So perhaps he should crawl and confess.

But, alas, he had let time expire.
Darling charged in, her eyes full of fire.
Six feet tall and quite round —
Nearly three hundred pounds —
She immediate repentance inspired.

She said, “Nate, dear, you should be ashamed.
Your unfaithfulness has caused me pain.
But I know how to fix
You and your bag of tricks.”
Round his leg she did fasten a chain.

Now Nathaniel is faithful and true.
After all, there’s not much else to do.
For his Darling learned fast:
If she wants love to last,
A girl does what she just has to do.

 

 

~~~

Friday Fictioneers 6/8/16 –

| Sandra Pavloff Conner

To join the fun of Friday Fictioneers 100-Word Story Challenge, just follow the link for the details. Photo by Jan Marler Morrill.  My story is below the picture.

PHOTO PROMPT © Jan Marler Morrill

 

Sebastian had said, “Follow the alley until it curves right. Stop at the blue door in the wall. Knock four times.”

Okay, here was the turn. Yes … the blue door. Four short raps. She held her breath. … No answer. … She waited. … Still no answer.

Drat the man!  Why all this mystery? Couldn’t they just meet at a cafe?

Lying on the floor inside, Sebastian stretched his arm to reach the door handle. But the knife in his back had done its work. He lost consciousness as the girl turned in frustration and left the alley.

My Healing Book is Now Digital

| Sandra Pavloff Conner

HEALING COVER FOR KINDLE - RESOLUTION UPJust a note to let my readers know that “Healing Is For You!” is now an e-book. The book (now in its third edition) has been used for years in churches, in Bible and Christian schools, and in personal and group studies. It’s a handbook for anyone who wants help in receiving healing from the Lord — or for those who want to learn more about what God’s Word says concerning healing in order to help others.

The book answers such troubling questions as the following:

Is it always God’s will to heal everybody?
What part does medical science play in God’s healing plan?
Isn’t man promised only 70 or 80 years of life on earth?
Is it God who determines when each person dies?
How can I die if I keep getting healed?
If it’s God’s will to heal, why do so many people fail to receive healing from Him?
If I don’t have faith for healing can I get that faith somehow?

You’ll find the e-book version at the Amazon Kindle Store for $3.99. And if you don’t have  a Kindle, you can download a totally free Kindle app for any device you use.

Check it out. If you don’t need it, purchase one for someone you love who does need it.

 

 

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Daily Post Prompt: Island

| Sandra Pavloff Conner

LIGHTHOUSE WITH FOGThe fog’s especially heavy tonight. I can’t see three feet past the door, so I guess it’s a good time to stay inside and write this letter. The lighthouse on the island has sounded the foghorn every two minutes for hours now.

I haven’t been back to the island since that night. In some ways, I wish I had moved away when you did. I’m sure it’s a lot easier on you not having to look out across the water and see that island every day. I know the spot is overgrown now, but I can still pick it out as clearly as if we’d left a marker. And hearing that blasted horn blow every time the fog moves in really gets on my nerves.

Tonight it’s as thick out there as it was the night we buried him. I often wonder what would have happened if the fog had lifted in time for someone to see us digging the grave. But, of course, that wasn’t likely to happen. Once the dratted stuff moves in, it clings to us like a shroud for hours on end.

I wish you were sitting here with me, sharing a bottle of our favorite whiskey. I hate being alone with my thoughts. I’m always chilled and shaky when there’s fog. It feels as if something’s choking me. I wonder if that’s how he felt as we tightened that rope around his neck until he stopped breathing. I know if I could hear your voice now, you’d tell me to stop being so fanciful.

I wish you were here with me. I hate fog.

~~~

To participate in this prompt, visit The Daily Post.

 

~~~

God’s Protection in the ‘Real Life’ Zone

| Sandra Pavloff Conner

DOVE - PEACE - BLUE 2
“He that dwells in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. … Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the trapper and from the deadly pestilence. … Because you have made the Lord … even the Most High, thy habitation, there shall no evil befall you; neither shall any plague or calamity come nigh your dwelling. … Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him; I will set him on high because he has known My name. He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor him. With long life will I satisfy him and show him my salvation.”   (Excerpts from Psalm 91)

Last week I had an auto accident. It was entirely my fault. I drove through a stop sign without stopping. Now, I take that particular route several times a week, and until last Friday, I had always stopped at that stop sign without fail. I suppose I had just enough on my mind Friday that it interfered with my normal attention to my driving, and the next thing I knew another driver was slamming into the driver’s side of my car and spinning it around wildly.

I can’t really describe everything that went through my mind in those seconds — or exactly how I felt.  And, frankly, I don’t want to relive the event enough to be able to explain. But when both vehicles came to a stop, and I could think clearly enough to do something sensible, I tried opening my door. It was totally jammed shut, so, realizing that I was evidently not seriously injured and that all my parts worked correctly, I crawled over the gear shift and console and climbed awkwardly out of the passenger side. I went over the the other vehicle, and the lady in that car said that she was badly shaken, but didn’t seem to have any serious injuries either.

My friends, the fact that she and I both literally walked away from our vehicles under our own steam, had not received any blows to our heads or other body parts, and could think and communicate and function at least almost normally was nothing but a miracle.

If the woman who hit me had been just about 8 inches farther to her left, I could have been dead. But the major impact of her car with mine came against the rear door rather than my own door. To be sure, my driver’s door will never work again, and the frame is so damaged that the car is pretty well totaled. But those mere inches at the exact point of impact made all the difference.

Why am I sharing this event on my blog? Because what I’ve told you so far is only part of the story. The best part is yet to come, and I want all of you to be able to share in it.

As most of my readers know by now, I am a firm believer that God means exactly what He says about His care of us and His healing and protection. One of His greatest promises of protection is Psalm 91.  I pray that Psalm aloud over myself and my family every morning, and the Lord has honored it in numerous ways during my lifetime.  As I drive, I often listen to scripture on tapes or CD’s in my car, and that particular morning, I was listening to a CD of my own father (a minister who is now with the Lord) reading healing and protection scriptures.

At the  exact time of the accident, he was reading the words of the last four sentences of Psalm 91. Those words were going out into the air in my car at the moment of impact, and there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that those Words from the Lord that I trust in — and His angels who are assigned to carry out His Word — saved my life and that of the woman driving the other car.

We sometimes get in God’s way, and in His Word He tells us numerous times that He doesn’t always get things His way because we won’t cooperate completely. So in this case, although He would have preferred my not having the accident and the resulting damage to my car and the other driver’s as well, the fact remains that I was negligent and did something stupid. Nevertheless, He was able to intervene and, through the power of His Word and His angels obeying His Word, He was able to spare both the other driver and me from death or even serious physical injury.

We have a wonderful, loving, caring Father. And His protection is REAL if we will learn what His Word says, believe it, and apply it by faith to our lives.

I’m enormously glad that I’m still alive to tell you about how wonderful He is!

 

~~~

Friday Fictioneers Reruns: ‘But Not Always’

| Sandra Pavloff Conner

I haven’t had much time to write lately, so since the Friday Fictioneers challenge is doing summer reruns this month, I took advantage of the situation. I’m “reruning” the story I originally wrote for this challenge way back in ?????

Photo copyright belongs to Rich Voza.  My story is below the picture.

Frid Fict Plane

 

BUT NOT ALWAYS

He was Cherokee, she Scottish-American. But the moment they met in the airport coffee shop, they were connected. Waiting out the fog, they talked like old friends. When her plane was called, he carried her bag to her boarding gate.

A question in her eyes, she said, “Wow, Chicago and Dallas – talk about two people going in opposite directions.”

Light flared in his eyes as he realized she didn’t want their connection to end either. He reached out and traced one gentle finger down her cheek.

“Opposite directions today,” he said, “but not always, I think.”

A spark in her eyes leaped to his, just as the boarding line began moving, and he promised: “I will see you again, Joy.”

~

 

~~~

 

Edge of the Sea

| Sandra Pavloff Conner

BRENDA'S OCEAN OUTER BANKS

I wish I could stand right now at the edge of the sea,
It’s salty breath a warm caress,
It’s rhythmic waves – roll on roll –
That surge my way, then break abruptly,
Tame and playful, licking my feet.
The sight, the sound, the scent – they beckon me:
I wish I could stand right now at the edge of the sea.

~
(Thanks to my sister Brenda Calvert for the great photo.

 

~~~

Prompt Nights 18 – Moonlight

| Sandra Pavloff Conner

This week’s prompt from Sanaa at a ‘Dash of Sunny’ is “Let us walk together in the moonlight.”  We can take the subject in any direction, so if your imagination kicks in, go to Sanaa’s site to get the details of participating with us. I decided to feature some graphics I created from a couple of my own shots of the moon — as well as a bit of free verse to round things off.

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MOONSTRUCK

Well, now, you lovely silver orb
Rising nightly, taking up your throne
To rule the sky amidst your starry entourage,
You have the power to stir men’s souls
And capture their imaginations —
Fostering mysteries, romantic notions,
Ghostly tales, and lovers’ secrets.

But how you’ve gained so grand a place
Within the minds of earthly men is quite beyond me.
For truly you are but a piece of rock
With lustrous filaments that cause you to reflect another’s light.
With no light of your own to boast
And no control of how you make your way across the sky,
I fail to see why you should be the root of so much poetry —
Or epic tales — or artistry.

You’re just a great reflector,
And all your beauty’s lent you by the sun.
Yet, still you manage with your borrowed lumens
To capture hearts and minds.
And so ’twill be as long as time shall run
That men, in word and song and artist’s brush,
Will make of you a symbol of their highest expectations,
And set you as the goal for which they reach
As they attempt to soar beyond their realm of dust.

And I suppose in that respect, you do deserve some praise.
For were it not for you, perhaps there’s many a man who would have trod this earth
And failed to lift his eyes to higher heights and deep desires.
So shine on, silver orb,
And carry on your glorious procession
Each night across the sky.
For generations yet of pioneers, adventurers, and lovers too
Will need your light to inspire their hearts to dream —
Then strive to make those lovely dreams come true.

 

~~~

Happiness Experiment

| Sandra Pavloff Conner

 

COW WITH SMILEY EYESWhen your smile is sincere, it will always show in your eyes.

Would you like to try a happiness experiment?  I first suggested this experiment a few years back, and some of you may have tried it then. But it never hurts to repeat something that has positive results. You can carry out this experiment on any day you choose, but you’ll want to start in the morning so that you have plenty of time to accumulate results.

Here are the steps:

  1. Make it a point to smile all day long – at every person, at every animal, and at yourself every time you look in the mirror.
  2. Every time you talk to someone (no matter what the topic) make it a point to say something positive to that individual.
  3. Deliberately stop 7 separate times and thank God out loud for some blessing in your life.
  4. At the end of the day, take stock of how you feel and record the results of the experiment.

______