Weekend Coffee Share – 26th March, 2022.

Welcome to Another Weekend Coffee Share!

This weekend, I’m getting in a bit of a head start. It’s Saturday afternoon – not Monday afternoon at about 2.55pm AEST when I’m clicking on the upload button with minutes to spare- or too late, as has also been the case. Anyway, it’s raining here again, and I’m having a pyjama day. I’ve been sending a few emails, and had a chat with a friend who spoke about needing “physical people”, and I mentioned that my friends online were hardly going to jump out of my computer screen to join me for a cup of tea. However, I’ve been friends with so many of you for such a long time, and our connections have been personal, even intimate. Indeed, some of you know me better than my friends on the ground, especially after these crazy covid lockdowns. We’re living in a weird world. At least, we were. Even I’m starting to venture out a bit more albeit tentatively.

Family dinner for the kids’ birthdays.

We’ve had a few monumental weeks lately what with Miss turning Sweet 16 and getting her learner’s permit and driving round for hours. Then Jonathon turned 18 and officially became a man last week (whatever that means). However, this week another line was drawn in the sand and I can’t wait to see what unfolds.

As you might’ve already seen, Geoff and our son drove down to Geelong in Victoria last Saturday so he could board the Tall Ship, Young Endeavour, on Monday and sail through to Sydney. It’s a young training scheme, and the ship was gifted to Australia by the British government back in 1988 for Australia’s Bicentenary. I’d heard of the ship years ago, but our interest was piqued when we saw it berthed in Stanley when we were down in Tasmania on holidays. Geoff is a member of Gosford Sailing Club and our son was also sailing for quite a few years, but had pulled back and then there was covid.

While they were down in Geelong, Geoff and J had a chance to look around and check the region out. After seeing his photos, I decided to head on down via Google Earth to join the dots. While it was interesting to check out the waterfront and historic architecture (at least, by Australian standards), but I was particularly drawn to series of colourful bollards of historic people from the Geelong area. Here’s a link: https://beyondtheflow.wordpress.com/2022/03/25/bollard-people-of-geelong-australia/

Miss. Please don’t ask me how she manoeuvred that rose around. I’m just the taxi driver.

Unfortunately, I didn’t make it down to Geelong because our daughter had a dance audition here, and she has another one tomorrow.

Photo: Rochelle Wishoff-Fields

Meanwhile, I decided to start collating my flash fiction pieces. So far, all of these were written as contributions to Friday Fictioneers, which is hosted by Rochelle Wishoff-Fields. It’s been quite a fascinating and invigorating process. Some of these were quite good. Many of them that I’d thought were quite good, were a bit average on review but had a spark and I’ve rewritten probably about ten of them during the week and I’m feeling pretty stoked. I won’t talk about the rest. They seemed to pass muster at the time, but it looks like they’ll be making their way to the cutting room floor.

BTW I screwed up my link for this week’s contribution to Friday Fictioneers. Here’s the link: https://beyondtheflow.wordpress.com/2022/03/23/digging-to-heaven-friday-fictioneers-23rd-march-2022/

Do you ever get a chance to review or collate your work?

My next step will be the poetry I’ve written during lockdown. Anything more than that, will require a more dedicated effort.

Anyway, there’s not much more to report, except I’m fed up with the rain, and I’m hoping to see a bit more of the sun before all of you in the Northern hemisphere spirit it away.

Meanwhile, you might like to join us over at the Weekend Coffee Share, which is hosted by Natalie the Explorer https://natalietheexplorer.home.blog/

Best wishes,

Rowena

Digging to Heaven- Friday Fictioneers: 23rd March, 2022.

In the dead of night, the archaeology team arrived at the excavation site.

“Leave no stone unturned. Legend says that if the Garden of Eden can be accessed from Israel, the gate is buried here at Beth Shan. Once we find the gate, use every trick in the book to get through.  Go nuclear, if you have to. We need to know who commands the universe: Jesus, Allah, Buddha, the Wizard of Oz, or the Big Bang? Screw faith. We need proof.”

“But what happens if we can’t get back?”

Six archaeology students were reported missing.

They’ve never been found.

…..

100 words PHOTO PROMPT © Rochelle Wisoff-Fields

Sometimes when I respond to these photo prompts, an idea immediately leaps out at me, and I’m on my way. However, there have also been many times where I’m a bit stuck, and inspiration takes it’s time. I didn’t recognise the subject of this week’s photo prompt, but the photo had been saved as Bet-Shan. Thanks to my best friend Google, I came across the following quotes:

“The fertility of the land and the abundance of water led the Jewish sages to say, “If the Garden of Eden is in the land of Israel, then its gate is Beth Shean.”1.

“If paradise in situated in the land of Israel, its entrance is Beth Shan.2” – – Rabbi Simeon Ben Lachish, c. A.D. 350.

It’s quite interesting to think that I as an Australian who has been in and out of lockdown over the last two years, could be writing about a scene in distant Israel and basing a story there.

Although I was fully aware that I was mixing with writers from around the globe at Friday Fictioneers, I wasn’t so conscious that the photo prompts themselves also came from around the world, and that quite a few of my responses had picked up on that and my writing had developed a strangely international influence without me even leaving my chair.

By the way, this all came to my attention because I finally decided to collate my flash fiction pieces and see what I had. It’s been very insightful and I’m still going. I’ve re-written quite a few, and realised quite a few more could use “a reno” but overall I was quite pleased with what I had. However, I also realized I need to write quite a few more.

Anyway, I need to get to sleep.

This has been another contribution to Friday Fictioneers hosted by Rochelle Wishoff Fields: https://rochellewisoff.com/2022/03/16/18-march-2022/

Many thanks and best wishes,

Rowena

Sources

1. https://www.bibleplaces.com/bethshean/

2. https://www.penn.museum/sites/expedition/beth-shan/

“One Australian.”

Barefoot with Vegemite smeared across her face, Lilly was running through ancient alleyways exploring her mother’s homeland.  With a Jewish mother and Palestinian father, her parents had moved to Australia… a modern story of Romeo and Juliette and love borne out of hate.

Yet, that hate had tracked them down. Grabbed them by the throat, until they choked. There was no escape. As the twists and turns of a war she didn’t understand flew from side to side, Lilly learned the Kookaburra Song.

“LILLY!” The scream echoed with reverberating anguish.

When she grew up, Lilly wanted to be a ballerina…

This has been another contribution to Friday Fictioneers. PHOTO PROMPT © Rochelle Wisoff-Fields.

…..

I struggled a bit with this prompt, as I’ve never been to Israel and was struggling to think of something and I remembered what it was like to go exploring as a child and how we ran barefoot through paddocks, and poked underneath my grandparents’ house so freely without any thought of danger. Growing up in Sydney, war was always somewhere else, although there had been some bombings by the Japanese during WWII, most notably on Darwin. So, I grew up with an idea of being safe.

At university, I remember meeting someone with a Serbian father and a Croatian mother and how they’d moved out to Australia to start a new life together and that inspired this story. That, along with the struggle many immigrants experience finding some sense of identity and belonging when the boundaries of home are blurred.

So, Lilly grows up eating Vegemite and singing the Kookaburra Song at school, which every Australian child learns and it’s usually sung as a round. Meanwhile, despite moving to Australia, her parents are still caught up in this war back home. There is no escape. Unfortunately, Lilly, the child of their love and an absolute innocent, becomes the the victim of that war.

Tragically, this sort of thing happens two often. Two Australians were killed in the recent London Bridge attack.

Oh for a perfect world.

Meanwhile, I’ll leave you with the words of the Kookaburra Song:

 

Kookaburra

Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree,
Merry merry king of the bush is he.
Laugh, Kookaburra, laugh, Kookaburra,
Gay your life must be!

Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree,
Eating all the gum drops he can see.
Stop Kookaburra, stop Kookaburra
Save some there for me!

Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree,
Counting all the monkeys he can see.
Laugh Kookaburra, laugh Kookaburra
That’s not a monkey, that’s me!

Here are some alternatives that have been created over the years.
See if you can add some more to the collection.

Kookaburra sits on a rusty nail,
He gets a sore in his tail.
Cry, Kookaburra, cry, Kookaburra,
How cruel life can be!

Kookaburra sits on electric wire,
Jumping up and down with his pants on fire.
Ouch, Kookaburra, ouch! Kookaburra,
Hot your tail must be!

Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree,
Eating all the gum drops he can see.
Laugh Kookaburra, laugh Kookaburra
Gay your life must be!

xx Rowena

Anne Frank: A Global Tribute… Tuesday 14th April, 2015

While being more renowned for being out-of-synch than having perfect timing, it turns out the timing of yesterday’s post sharing my journal-journey with Anne Frank, was absolutely perfect…even uncanny!! You see, tomorrow, marks the 70th anniversary of her very tragic and untimely death in Bergen-Belson, a Nazi concentration camp.It’s almost like she whispered in my ear so I could find out and be a part of a global tribute: #notsilent. Now, I’m spreading the word and encouraging you to get involved too!

The Anne Frank Trust and Penguin Random House (UK publishers of The Diary of A Young Girl) have joined together to mark the 70^th anniversary of Anne’s death with a one minute campaign called #notsilent.

Instead of a one minute’s silence to commemorate the end of Anne Frank’s short life, we are invited to read out loud a one minute passage from Anne’s inspirational writing at any time on or after Tuesday 14^th April.

There are further details on their web site at: http://www.annefrank.org.uk/what-we-do/notsilent This includes a selection of passages suitable for a one minute reading to choose from. Alternatively, you can choose one yourself, or you can read something you have written about your own life and hopes. You can start or end your reading by explaining why you want to do it.

“The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quite alone with the heavens, nature and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple beauty of nature. As longs as this exists, and it certainly always will, I know that then there will always be comfort for every sorrow, whatever the circumstances may be. And I firmly believe that nature brings solace in all troubles.”
― Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl

Anne Frank ice skating with friends prior to going into hiding. Such an every day thing, which takes on incredible significance when Anne and her family could even do the basic things we take for granted.

How you can get involved

STEP ONE:  Select an extract suitable for a one minute reading. This can either be an extract from Anne’s diary, you can download our selection here, or you can choose your own writing. While you read, either alone, in a group, in your classroom, home, work place or public place, we ask you to film yourself and upload it onto a video sharing platform of your choice (Youtube, Vimeo, Flickr etc) ensuring the video is available to view publicly.

STEP TWO:   Send us the link to your video, by posting it on to the Anne Frank Trust’s Facebook (Anne Frank Trust UK) or Twitter (@annefranktrust) pages, using the hash tag #notsilent. Alternatively, you can e-mail your video via we transfer to siama@annefrank.org.uk.

STEP THREE:  We also ask you to share your one minute clip throughout your social media to encourage others to join in.

Thank you for participating and honoring Anne Frank’s memory in this way. We will together be #notsilent.

By the way, here’s a link to my post: A Life Saving Journey with Anne Frank: https://beyondtheflow.wordpress.com/2015/04/12/a-lifesaving-journey-with-anne-frank/

Thanks to Merril from Yesterday and Today: Merril’s Historical Musings: https://merrildsmith.wordpress.com/ for spreading the word and now it’s our turn.

Although it’s a bit last minute, please spread the word and pass this on. Anne Frank touched so many hearts in so many different ways and this is an opportunity to keep her light alive. It also provides the living with the opportunity to come together joining hands as a diverse, global community to honour a vibrant life which tragically ended so utterly alone and to stand firm against the spread of racism, discrimination and hate in our contemporary world.  After all, Anne Frank has demonstrated that one person really can influence the world and work for for good.

“I don’t want to have lived in vain like most people. I want to be useful or bring enjoyment to all people, even those I’ve never met. I want to go on living even after my death!”
― Anne Frank

Love and blessings,

Rowena