Originally published Friday, 09 January 2015.
Welcome to the first Five Minute Friday of 2015! Happy New Year to all of you!
As many of you know, I took a break from Five Minute Friday during the past two weeks because of the holidays, but I have really, genuinely missed you guys!
So, tell me, how was your Christmas and New Year’s? Did you have a restful break? Did you have withdrawal symptoms from two weeks without #fmfparty?
To celebrate our happy reunion and to show you just how much I’ve missed you, my e-book, Letters to Grief, is FREE on Amazon Kindle for ONE DAY ONLY — Friday, January 9th. Click here to get your free copy. (And if you don’t have a Kindle, have no fear — you can get a free Kindle reading app over here.)
Spread the word, eh? I truly hope it will be a blessing to all who read.
Photo Credit: Kaitlyn Bouchillon
Have you heard that registration for Round Five of Five Minute Friday Snail Mail is now open? Click here for more details and to register!
How many of you took part in the mini-Christmas round? Wasn’t it so much fun? Many thanks to Kaitlyn Bouchillon for all of her hard work to make #fmfpartysnailmail a reality! Such a wonderful way to grow this amazing community.
And speaking of growing community, I have even more exciting news!
At the end of last year, I asked on Twitter what you guys would like to see in 2015 for Five Minute Friday. Many of you suggested vlogs as a fun addition to our weekly flash mob writing link-up.
So, I thought about it and came up with the idea of Five Minute Friday Introductions.
Every once in a while in the regular FMF posts, we’re going to feature five-minute long videos introducing one of our fabulous FMF participants!
I’ve asked the lovely Asheritah Ciuciu of OneThingAlone.com to be our video person. She will be interviewing FMF participants at random intervals and I’ll share the videos here in our regular link-ups!
I’m super excited about this new component to Five Minute Friday, and so look forward to actually seeing many of you and hearing your voices, instead of just reading your words on a screen!
This week, I have Asheritah with me in the video below so you can get to know her a bit better before she takes over as the FMF Introductions interviewer. Enjoy the video, and don’t forget to stop by her blog after you’ve linked up your own post!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=UUDzUSMKHI-OmhhinSslS1Uw&v=2o-Rt7zWUEI
(If you’re reading this in your e-mail and can’t see the video, click here.)
And goodness, after all of this excitement, I almost forgot that I still have to write!
This week’s prompt is:
Ready? GO.
You know the places, don’t you?
You can see them in your mind’s eye as soon as I ask you about them.
The places that make you feel welcome.
Or maybe it’s not the places, but the people.
The ones who drop everything and make you feel like you’re the most important thing they could be paying attention to in that particular moment.
They look at you with smiling eyes and go out of their way to give you the most comfortable spot on the overstuffed couch, and you sit and chat until you remember to look at the clock and gasp in surprise at how much time has passed, entirely unnoticed.
Those are the places where the welcome just oozes from the slightly marked up walls, where the curtains sway hello in the gentle breeze and crusty dishes still soak in the sink from last night.
The places where your friend kicks Matchbox cars out of the way and swipes crayons off the table so you can sit down and sip a steaming cup of tea with hot milk and sugar. She’s not flustered by your presence or apologetic for the mess. Just thrilled that you stopped by.
You don’t mean to spill out all the words, but they flow freely anyway, and how can they not, when you’re so warmly embraced in such an environment seeping with grace?
That’s the kind of welcome I want you to feel here. The place I have to offer in this tiny corner of the internet, where words flow free and the floor is a bit messy, but the tea is hot and the door is open.
STOP.
Link up your own five minutes on the word WELCOME by clicking here!
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