Inspiring Moment: Angel

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Inspiring Moment: Mossy Tree

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Five More Minutes to Enjoy This Summer Day

Written by Braiden Rex-Johnson on August 29, 2011

I love this poem by Mary Oliver in which she describes the simple pleasures of enjoying THE SUMMER DAY. 

Who made the world?

Who made the swan, and the black bear?

Who made the grasshopper?

This grasshopper, I mean-

the one who has flung herself out of the grass,

the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,

who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down-

who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.

Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.

Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.

I don’t know exactly what a prayer is.

I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down

into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,

how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,

which is what I have been doing all day.

Tell me, what else should I have done?

Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?

Tell me, what is it you plan to do

with your one wild and precious life?

~Mary Oliver~

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Inspiring Moment: Rows of Headstones

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Inspiring Moment: Folded Napkin

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Why Share Your Story on FMMW?

Written by Braiden Rex-Johnson on August 25, 2011

As a professional writer all my life, I have never had any problems opening my thoughts, heart, and emotions up to others.

And so the entire concept of Five More Minutes With has never seemed awkward or scary–instead, I view it as a forum for consolation and commiseration. . .an inspirational-tribute website.

But although an old high-school buddy of mine is intrigued by the Five More Minutes With concept and website, he voiced trepidation about actually sharing his story. And especially about revealing his true identity.

“Dave” says:

“I feel happy and accomplished when I’ve finished writing something, regardless of the subject matter. But it is a difficult and sometimes grueling process for me.

“This is the main reason that I have historically been and remain a terrible personal correspondent to even my favorite people.

“I feel a compulsion to write something that meets my standards of being both meaningful and really saying what I want it to say.

“So I tend to agonize over language.

“I’m flattered that you find my words worth sharing, and I’m willing to allow them to be shared in any forum where they might be enjoyed or appreciated in some way.

“I would prefer to remain anonymous, at least for the time being.”

Do you have a story you’d like to share? Are you too private to share your name?

Then please consider posting anonymously.

One writer said that sharing her story with the Five More Minutes With audience was more cathartic than years of therapy!

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Inspiring Moment: Field of Dreamy Flowers

Written by Braiden

 

 

 

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Inspiring Moment: Alki Beach

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Childhood Memories Immortalized

Written by Braiden Rex-Johnson on August 22, 2011

Several months ago, I ran across some cross-stitch and a needlepoint canvases that I had created during my childhood. They’d been locked up in an old suitcase for years, so were still in credible shape, with just a stain or two around the edges.

Instead of leaving them tucked away, I decided to get them framed at a nearby Aaron’s Brothers store. It wasn’t an inexpensive proposition, but I felt this little reminder of childhood deserved to be on show.

Here are the results–three canvases that now hang proudly on one of our bedroom walls.

Do you have touchstones to your past that are hiding away in an old drawer or corner?

Do you remember the past, and honor it?

Don’t you think we should all commemorate our young lives more often?

Inspiring Moment: Mediterranean Mussels

Written by Braiden

 

 

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