It's Faster (Wordless Wednesday) and Words for Wednesday

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Linking up with Wordless Wednesday, BeThere2Day, and Sandee at Comedy Plus.     

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Words for Wednesday was begun by Delores and has become a moveable feast of word or picture or music prompts to encourage us to write stories, poems, or whatever strikes our fancy.    

This month, the prompts are being provided by Hilary Melton-Butcher and they will be posted by Elephant's Child.      

    

This week's prompts are:

• Eyebrow                       
• Roiling                            
• Refuse                          
• Gratifying                        
• Newsreel                        

And/or

• Knead
• Air
• Journey
• Port
• Crime 
  

Charlotte (MotherOwl) has given us Turquoise Blue as the colour of the month.  If you can also incorporate it into your stories she (and I) will be grateful.

Have fun.

She didn't need a NEWSREEL to know times were tough.

The way prices were going up seemed like a CRIME.  Her husband was a PhD student, she was a schoolteacher.  Her salary as a first year teacher with no experience barely covered what they needed to live on.

She'd learned to bake her own bread, it was cheaper, finding out she loved to KNEAD and work it, as she was doing now.  They were vegetarian, to save money.

The end of the year holiday spirit was starting to float through the AIR, but she and her husband wouldn't be making the JOURNEY back home.  There wasn't any money to spare for travel.

Over the past several weeks, she'd managed to squeeze their food budget and save up a few cents here and there, and she'd saved out a whole $10.  She'd told her husband they were going to have a feast, she would use the extra to buy them a chicken and a few other festive foods and they'd have roast chicken for their Christmas dinner.

Both of them were excited about it.

She looked at the clock as she set her dough aside to rise.  She had just enough time to put on her Turquoise Blue dress and head to Bible study at the church they attended.

Once there, the leader announced at the end of the study, they'd be taking up a special collection for something or other, she didn't really pay much attention.  After all, they gave their small tithe each week and that was all they could do.  Every penny counted.

The thought of the $10 in her pocketbook came to her.

No, she thought, surely The Lord can do His work without taking away our Christmas dinner.

As the study continued, a lively discussion, she found she could barely pay attention.  She knew The Lord's calling when she felt it, and right now she didn't want to feel it.  It set her stomach ROILING, and the way she was staring off into space half the time caused one of the other participants to raise an EYEBROW.  This wasn't like her, she was generally very vocal in the discussions, but this time she sat mute as a stone while a war raged within.

She was going to REFUSE to do it.  She told herself she didn't care, this message wasn't for her, she and her husband should have a little fun at Christmas, this just wasn't right and inside she felt like a toddler pitching a hissy fit.

The end of the study came and a basket was passed.  Her arms felt like lead and she fumbled with the clasp of her pocketbook, but she took out the precious $10 and dropped it in the basket, feeling like her heart was in there, too.

Then came two feelings all at once, the one a GRATIFYING feeling of having done what she knew she was supposed to do, and the horror of having to go home and tell her husband and try to explain it to him.

As deeply committed to Jesus as he was, she wasn't sure he'd understand.

Riding the bus home, she kept replaying in her mind what she would tell her husband, and she was startled after walking a couple of blocks to their apartment to open the door and see the flash on the answering machine indicating they had a message.  Her  husband wasn't home yet, but that happened often, the research team sometimes stayed at the lab late.  Had he called?  Was there an emergency?

She crossed the room and pushed the button, and the message was like a lighthouse flash telling the storm battered ship there was a PORT nearby.  One of the professors on the team had left a message.

He was inviting them to Christmas dinner at his house.  He and his wife, he said, always cook a huge feast and invite as many students who can't travel home for the holidays as they possibly could.  There would be turkey and all the trimmings, no need to bring anything but themselves.

In that moment, she felt her Heavenly Father's care more than she ever had before, and she was so glad she'd obeyed that still, small voice.

(Based on a true story told by one of my church friends, who has been married over 50 years, about their early years.)

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Today is:

Birthday of Prince Joachim -- Denmark

Clean Air Day -- Canada

Daniel Boone Day -- Kentucky, US (date in he first sighted, in 1767, what would become Kentucky)

Flag Day -- Peru

Global Running Day   globalrunningday.org

Journalist's Day -- Argentina (marking the first publication of a newspaper in Argentina on this day in 1810)

Judgements Day -- Fairy Calendar (Leaping songs)

National Chocolate Ice Cream Day

Sette Giugno -- Malta (commemoration of the tragedy of June 7, 1919, considered their National Day)

St. Meriadoc's Day (Patron of the deaf and against deafness)

Tailor's Day -- the first Wednesday of June is noted on many sites as the day to thank your tailor

Union Dissolution Day -- Norway

VCR Day -- the first Sony Betamax went on sale today in 1975

Vestalia -- Ancient Roman Calendar (multi-day festival for Vesta, goddess of the hearth, this first day termed the Vesta Asperit; through the 15th)

Vivien Kellems Memorial Day -- born this date in 1896, she fought the IRS and income tax for her whole life

Anniversaries Today:

Jimmy Osmond marries Michele Larson, 1991

YMCA is founded by George Williams, 1844

Birthdays Today:

Michael Cera, 1988

Anna Kournikova, 1981

Larisa Oleynik, 1981

Bill Hader, 1978

Allen Iverson, 1975

Bear Grulls, 1974

Karl Urban, 1972

Roberto Alagna, 1963

Prince, 1958

Louise Erdrich, 1954

Liam Neeson, 1952

Orham Pamuk, 1952

Jenny Jones, 1946

Bill Kreutzmann, Jr, 1946

Tom Jones, 1940

John Napier Turner, 1929

Gwendolyn Brooks, 1917

Dean Martin, 1917

Jessica Tandy, 1909

Virginia Apgar, 1909

James Braddock, 1906

Paul Gauguin, 1848

Debuting/Premiering Today:

Ghostbusters(Film), 1984

"Johnny Cash Show"(TV), 1969

"The $64,000 Question"(TV), 1955

"The Seven Deadly Sins"(satirical ballet chanté), 1933

Today in History:

The first Crusaders begin their Siege of Jerusalem, 1099

Port Royal, Jamaica, is devastated by an earthquake, 1692

David Thompson reaches the mouth of the Saskatchewan River in Manitoba, 1800

Asian cholera reaches Quebec, brought by Irish immigrants, and kills about 6,000 people in Lower Canada, 1832

1,800 Fenian raiders are repelled back to the United States after they loot and plunder around Saint-Armand and Frelighsburg, Quebec, 1866

Tolbert Lanston receives patents for monotype typesetting machines, 1887

Norway's parliament dissolves  its union with Sweden, 1905

Sony introduces the Betamax videocassette recorder for sale to the public, 1975

Priscilla Presley opens Graceland to the public, 1982

Mt. Pinatubo erupts, sending an ash cloud 7km/14.3mi high, 1992

The United Nations defines the Blue Line as the border between Israel and Lebanon, 2000

According to a new study, breast milk boosts brain development by 30% compared to babies who are fed formula, 2013

The journal "Science" publishes studies that show the Mars Curiosity Rover has found organic matter, including methane, on Mars, 2018

According to the UN, more than 4 million Venezuelans have left their country since 2015 due to the economic crisis, 2019

Bdelloid rotifer multicellular organisms, frozen in Siberia for about 24,000 years, "come back to life" after being thawed by Russian scientists, 2021

The Economist Intelligence Unit names Aukland, New Zealand the world's most livable city, and Damascus, Syria, the least livable city, 2021

A new study reveals Shark Bay sea grass, which grows off Western Australia and has been cloning itself for 4,500 years, may be world's largest plant, covering 77 square miles of sea floor, 2022