Faithfulness

Friday Fictioneers – 11/27/15 — Beloved Sentinel

| Sandra Pavloff Conner

This week’s Friday Fictioneers challenge. The photo is courtesy of Sandra Crook. My story is below the picture.

PHOTO PROMPT © Sandra Crook

BELOVED SENTINEL

“Does she stand on that cliff every day?” Tobias asked.

“Every day,” Raulf replied, looking at the young girl wrapped in her woolen shawl, black hair windswept like a flag.

“But five years! Surely she doesn’t still hope.”

Raulf nodded his head. “Serena insists Jamie will not fail her. He promised, and she must keep trusting.”

Tobias frowned. “She’s so beautiful. I’d gladly have her for my wife. There must be some way to make her see that she needs to move on with her life.”

“She’ll move on … when she sees his sails on the horizon … and not before.”

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Award Rebels

| Sandra Pavloff Conner

semper-fidelis-awardHey, I got a treat today: Gerry, (Sitting on the Porch, Rocking Away the Blues) and I are both what one might call award rebels. We believe in giving awards to other bloggers because they have done great work, been inspiring, or added some other positive dimension to the world of their readers. But we DO NOT believe in attaching a bunch of rules to those awards that the recipients must comply with. We figure if someone deserves an award, then they have already done everything they need to do. So we have decided that we will accept awards — and gladly so — ONLY if it’s understood that we do so on our own terms (which we consider much more sensible and friendly).

Since I know his heart in the matter is similar to mine, I am able to accept awards from Gerry and enjoy them. That is what I am doing today. This particular award says a lot, as far as I’m concerned. The title of the award is “Semper Fidelis.” That term is the official motto of the United States Marine Corps, and was one of the primary mottoes my dad lived by all of his life — faithful to God, faithful to his wife, faithful to his children, faithful to his nation, faithful to his employers, and faithful to his friends. And I, of course, was brought up to live by the same motto.  

So this award touches on that part of my life. But it offers something else. In the explanatory notation on the award, “May you never howl alone,” I find a fun way of saying that friendship and faithfulness to it are so important in life. And sending someone this wish is just a creative and light-hearted way of saying I’m wishing you faithful friends to be with you in every phase of your life — good, bad, and indifferent. Because when we are happy and laughing, we need someone to share it; when we are sad and crying in pain, we need the same; and when we are just aggravated, bored, or generally out of sorts — and need to howl at the moon — we need a friend to howl with.

So with this acceptance post, I send my thanks to Gerry, and I offer this award to any and all of my faithful readers who have also become faithful friends via Cyberspace. If you would like to receive this award yourself, please accept it and post it to your own site as my way of sending you this friendship wish: “May you never howl alone.” If you’d then like to pass it on to others, feel free to do so. I’m also passing it on to one of my great writing friends who does not blog, but is active on Facebook. Her online name is “Lone Wolf,” and I think she needs this wish as well.

I probably should add that if you hear someone howling today, it might be yours truly — or it might be Gerry!

~

 

Just Do It

| Sandra Pavloff Conner

Exif JPEG

These delightful daffodils — golden bells of sunshine — exploded in my back yard a day ago. They always come — regardless of what the weather man says. A friend told me today that she heard a winter-weather advisory for this area, and I responded that almost every year, as soon as my daffodils come up, then the weather turns mean and nasty and tries to beat them to the ground. But these daffodils represent life, and life keeps producing life — even in the very face of death.

I got to thinking, after talking to my friend, that these daffodils, like everything else God created, have a job to do. They are to push their way up out of the ground and grow straight and tall to announce that spring has come and new life is available. They do their job perfectly, regardless of any possible consequences.

So I’m taking a lesson from these little flowers, and I’m sharing that lesson with you: Don’t worry about whether anything or anyone else is doing what he’s supposed to do. And don’t look all around to see if all circumstances are in your favor. Just be faithful over what you have been assigned. If you have a job to do —- DO IT!

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