We Are The World Blogfest #WATWB and Sunsets for Kate

We Are The World Blogfest and Sunsets for Kate

Welcome to the first post of the We Are the World Blogfest #WATWB!  You can sign up here.

Our special lead co-hosts for this month are Lynn Hallbrooks, Belinda Witzenhausen, Damyanti Biswas, Simon Falk and Sylvia McGrath and they are committed to stories about peace, love and joy.

For the We Are The World premier post I would like feature Sunsets for Kate. In some ways it is about a lovely lady who shares her life with Usher syndrome.  But, it is about so much more.  This is because Kate set up a blog about collecting sunsets and stories.

Kate, among many things, is also a wife and mum. So, other people have a vested interest in her health and wellbeing as well.  But, let’s hear a bit from Kate in her own words:

“I was fifteen when diagnosed with Usher syndrome. Already hearing impaired, I was told I would also become visually impaired, and one day, to be exact, by the time I was forty, I would be blind. The good news is, forty has come and gone and I am not blind. Winning! But soon, maybe soon.

Wondering what I will regret when I no longer have sight, I realised it will not be the places I have not yet seen, but all the sunsets I will miss.

And so I had this idea. Sunsets for Kate. Why not invite people to share sunsets with me and I can see a lifetime of sunsets in the lifetime of my sight.

I am motivated to use my impending blindness to open the eyes of others.”

Through reaching out to other people, Kate has received not only many sunsets, but many stories too. Her openness to others has also led her to travel, experiencing people and cultures around the world.

As she describes:

“Travel has allowed me to witness the bond that extends with a smile, across cultures, borders, classes and religion.

It has opened my eyes to both how big and how small the world can be, my ears to the common language of kindness, and my heart to the dreams shared by all across the globe.

Through my creativity and writing, I seek to share my adventures, my experiences, and stories, not only to be a voice for me, but a voice for others like me, all over the world.”

Kate is not letting her challenges stop her, her family and friends from having a full life.  You can send your sunset to Kate by following the contact details here.  Check out her ‘Chasing Daylight’.

In Honour of ‘Sunsets for Kate’

We spend our days of life,

Thriving in the light,

Amid many joys and strife,

And resting in the night.

When our earthly days are waning,

Our play and toil are done,

Then our gratitude is gaining,

And we behold the setting sun.

Simon C.J. Falk 31 March 2017

 

Want to spread more cheer with other great writers.

Join our We Are The World Blogfest  and visit it’s  newly minted Facebook Page

Let us flood social media with peace and love, and “In Darkness, Be Light.” This is the first post for We Are The World Blogfest – 31st March 2017.

~~~GUIDELINES~~~

1.  Keep your post to below 500 words, as much as possible.
2. All we ask is you link to a human news story on your blog on the last Friday of each month, one that shows love, humanity, and brotherhood. Something like this news, about a man who only fosters terminally ill children.
3. Join us on the last Friday of each month in sharing news that warms the cockles of our heart. No story is too big or small, as long as it goes beyond religion and politics, into the core of humanity.
4. Place the WE ARE THE WORLD Badge on your sidebar, and help us spread the word on social media. Tweets, Facebook shares, G+ shares using the #WATWB hashtag through the month most welcome. More Blogfest signups mean more friends, love and light for all of us.
5. We’ll read and comment on each others’ posts, get to know each other better, and hopefully, make or renew some friendships with everyone who signs on as participants in the coming months.
6. To signup, add your link in WE ARE THE WORLD Linky List below.

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What If We Went From Rant To Tran?

What If We Went From Rant To Tran?

 

What if the word jumblers

Tumbled the letters

Of rant

Into

Tran?

 

Raving, rancour and retribution

Might be

Replaced.

 

Aggressive, antagonistic acrimony

Might be

Altered.

 

Negative nastiness and

Name-calling

Might be

Neutralised.

 

Tormenting in toxic tones

Might be

Tempered.

 

Transformation may come when

Retribution patiently passes to

Restoration,

Acrimony allows hurt to

Abate,

Nastiness lets honesty

Name

The deeper truth.

 

Then we may be transported

From a battleground of bitter bites,

To a banquet where

Respectful honesty

Serves the digestion of all.

 

Simon C.J. Falk 30 March 2017

 

Want to spread more cheer with other great writers. Check out our We Are The World Blogfest  or it’s  newly minted Facebook Page

Bold Boulders

Bold Boulders

 Bold Boulders

Bold boulders

Assert themselves

On the landscapes,

And those looking on

Like us.

Persistently patient,

Their presence poses

Within deep geological time.
We, by contrast,

Under duress

Of fleeting trials and tribulations,

Teeter and topple.

Whereas, those boulders season

Searing sun,

Whipping winds,

Sheets of snow,

Films of frost, and

Remain, among

Downpours of rain.
Bold boulders you have sung your song,

Passing through the epochs long.

Do stand with us, that we may be strong,

When transient trifles to us do throng.

Simon C.J. Falk 29 March 2017
 

Want to spread more cheer with other great writers. Check out our We Are The World Blogfest  or it’s  newly minted Facebook Page

In My Hand – #WATWB

It seemed fitting to include a copy actually written in my hand.

 

In My Hand

 

In my hand,

I have a choice.

By my hand,

I can express a voice.

With my hand,

I might strike out in hate.

I can hold back my hand,

And sit to wait.

With fisted hand,

I can pound a blow.

With an open palm,

Myself I show.

With tumbling fingers,

I might tap a rant or rave.

With a lighter touch,

Some grief I may save.

As friend or foe,

I decide to take a stand.

To offer peace,

And stretch out my hand.

 

Simon C.J. Falk 25 March 2017

 

Want to spread more cheer with other great writers. Check out our We Are The World Blogfest  or it’s  newly minted Facebook Page

We Warmly Welcome Acrostic – #WATWB One Week Out

Click on  We Are The World Blogfest  to sign up today.

Want to spread more cheer with other great writers. Check out our We Are The World Blogfest  or it’s  newly minted Facebook Page

Crossroads Decisions and Discernment

Over the course of this year I have some decisions to make. What roads to walk. What roads to turn away from and leave behind. There may be regrets and disappointments. There may need to be an honest facing of who is who and who and where do I fit.

While I really like Robert Frost’s poem Birches, the one that comes to mind here is 
The Road Not Taken.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

By Robert Frost, thanks to Poetry Foundation for text.

How do you make decisions in your life?

Sign up for We Are the World

 

On a St. Patrick’s Day

On a St. Patrick’s Day

On A St. Patrick’s Day

We feel it on us,

through the thin places,

where the veil between

is so thin.

Those past

are present to us,

Those afar

are felt near,

and connected,

across the gritty sands

and surging seas.

And all creation

Groans,

in a hope,

that a deep peace

courses,

within every being.

As the music,

of the great harmony,

moves us on.

 

Simon C.J. Falk 17/18 March 2017

 

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A Repost from Polly Rocks and Bones

From Polly Oliver:

This is an Interview with me by the lovely people atSpillwords Press! Happy days 😁

via All grown up — rocksandbones.

 

I thoroughly recommend Polly’s poems to our readers.  You can follow Polly on WordPress, twitter or Spillwords.

Want to spread more cheer with other great writers. Check out our We Are The World Blogfest 

 

Scribbles in the Margins

Scribbles in the Margins

 

Scribbles,

In the margins

Of our lives.

Moments,

To minute

Impressions,

Mementos,

Between

Our strives.

Jottings,

Of gibberish,

In poetry or prose.

How we fit them in

Only creativity

Knows.

For life,

And creativity,

Cannot be stopped.

Its tubers and runners

May well be lopped,

But spring out again,

In another way,

Shooting from our soul

On any given day.

No matter how busy,

Betwixt,

Or between,

Our creative lives

Will enter a scene,

And stage themselves

Down corridors of our day.

I give thanks for those moments.

They illumine my way.

 

Simon C.J Falk 11 March 2017

 

If you’re tired of negativity and strife on blogs and social media, check out the We Are the World Blogfest! here

Another Day We Greet

Another Day We Greet

 

Another day we greet,

Shake off the sleep,

And arise

Upon our feet,

To where

The day may go.

Planned to a degree,

And altered in course,

In what ways?

We are yet to know.

But

Begin we do.

We breathe in

the air,

and soak up

the sun’s rays,

warmed within.

What calls

The birds make

Upon our ear,

We can barely

Hear, amidst

The shssssh

Of the shower.

But call they do,

Sounding through,

Calling us,

To be

Present.

Now.

Before later schedules

Are due.

 

 

Simon C.J. Falk 11 March 2017

 

If you’re tired of negativity and strife on blogs and social media, check out the We Are the World Blogfest! here