Your writing prompt this week is
SNOW
Having been visited by the white stuff this week, it seemed a fitting prompt. Do you love it or hate it? I rather like it – as long as I’m cosy inside looking out. And from snow come snowflakes, snowmen, snowdrops, snowy owls and more. What are your thoughts on this week’s prompt?
Fact or fiction, prose or poetry, I would love to read your thoughts on this week’s prompt, but there’s no obligation to share your writing. Here is the work you shared on the last prompt NEW BEGINNINGS.
New beginnings? Yes. Today.
Right now. Right here. Beware the way
some doubters fear to speak, yet say,
“Perhaps. Maybe tomorrow.”
New beginnings are just what is happening for us in about two weeks! I’ve blogged about it already, but shortly I’ll say how appropriate that our new beginning is so close to New Year’s!
Dave is going back to work, coming out if his retirement of only three years because he feels needed and because I need insurance to get treated faster.
We will be moving back to Southeast TX…this time in or near Vidor. We will live in our bus in an RV park until we find a house. We might even live in a rent house for a while, it just depends on what we find and the market.
My hope (and his) is that he only has to work a short while, less than five years, and once I’m whole and healthy, we can get back to our travels.
To begin you start at the top
Keep going until you stop
Making goals is all good and well
But sometimes they begin to smell
So it’s no big deal to just drop
***
They say you should make resolutions
But it’s time for some revolutions
Any day is a good day to start
Just aim and throw that dart
You’ll come up with good solutions
New Year comes forth with longed for hope
Slippery slope
Don’t me deceive
Magical Eve
Deliver me a love sincere
Forever near
Close to his breast
My head to rest
Golden hair on his sainted head
Soon off to bed
To share a kiss
Delightful bliss
The hour draws nigh bells soon will peal
I do not feel
A lover’s touch
I wish too much
Susan Batten:
A New Beginning
The three of us waited for the plane. My two big suitcases had gone, checked in. The hardest part remained – saying goodbye. “See you at Christmas!” As if that holiday was not three months away. Only five whirlwind days since I got the job offer – five days to leave a business, leave a country, leave a family. No wonder my mind dwelt on our wine bar in the Cotswolds. My destination in northern Spain was hardly on the horizon. “Don’t go there!” they’d cried in horror. The Basque Country: synonymous with ETA, violence and terrorism. But that was where I was heading.
new is not old
anti
and before
any ante
resolute perhaps
not to repeat
Today is the day for us to sing ‘Auld Lang Syne’ and look forward to new beginnings, a time for feeling nostalgic about friends and events of the past year. Resolutions will be made half-heartedly and forgotten as tomorrow’s hangovers set in.
Since I no longer imbibe in the tradition of getting plastered all night and walking into the New Year with a fog on my brain, I have no excuse for the cacography in this sentence, but rather put it there so I could incorporate the word daily into this prompt.
In the last year, many changes have happened in my life. Directions have encountered detours, and new roads have become smooth travelling into the future. I eagerly look forward to the growth of my spirituality and my quest to make videos using AI as a tool. I will, however, reminisce about the past, especially “Starpup”, the cosmic clairvoyant creation of caffeine-induced craziness offering his ‘Woofy Wisdom’.
“You want new beginnings? I’ll give you new beginnings. There’s the door.”
“But My Dear. I only meant we should try new things.”
“Oh yeah. Like what?”
“Like maybe go to a movie.”
“All trash.”
“Read some books and discuss them.”
“My eyes are too weak.”
“Eat different foods.”
“Gives me heartburn.”
“Smile more.”
“What?”
“Smile more.”
“Wait a minute. Smile more?”
“Yup.”
“That I can do.”
“And your smile is beautiful.”
“Go on you old goat.”
“That’s my girl.”
One of my favourite books by Erica James is entitled The Queen of New Beginnings. I don’t have a copy now as like so many other things, it was given to charity when we bought the boat in 2014. However, if I can get a replacement, I will. You can read a brief summary of the story HERE
With a new year about to start in a few hours, Hubby has taken Maya out to avoid the possibility of early firework celebrations. Come midnight, the three of us will be tucked up in bed hopefully giving it megga ZZzs.
We are hoping 2026 will see the beginnings of a better year for us.
Fresh Start
blank slate
where my pen is, I am at home
and nowhere else
*
pages unwritten
wherever I lay my pen
there will be my home
Begin
Now we prepare for new beginnings
To turn the page and begin anew
Now is the time of letting go
Of the flotsam of fear and failure
Floating in the morass of our minds.
Like faded flowers
Like butterfly wings
Like that evanescent breath of a moment
Before the sun breaks the horizon
But bathes the sky with its glow
We are creatures defined by change
And destined for growth
We are perpetual works in progress
Molded by the Potter’s hands
Reforming, reframing
Resplendent
We shine with the light of tomorrow.
New Year, New Beginnings
Well, it is now 2026 in my part of the world.
It is 1 AM as I write this. I stayed up to ring in the new year. Mom and I watched a new years countdown on tv.
Since it is a new year, I have made some plans.
New beginnings, and all that.
I want to get healthy. I want to lose some weight. I want to eat right, and get fitter.
Today is the day I make a start.
I’m feeling quietly optimistic. I know if I set my mind to it, I can do this.
I just need to take it slowly. Baby steps. Roam wasn’t built in a day.
I need to set realistic goals for myself.
I’m tired of carrying a lot of extra weight. I’m tired of weight always being a struggle for me.
But it isn’t just about my weight.
I need to do a complete over hall of my diet.
So those are my new beginning plans for 2026. Wish me luck!
Brave New Beginnings – 5th March 1993
Sun shines down on me
And I realise I am blessed
With all life’s wonder
And each day’s new test
Clouds that pass by
Casting shadows of doubt and fear
Are soon-forgotten reflections
That never held favour here
Each new step taken forward
Opens up numerous avenues to explore
Each avenue searched in time
Makes more possibilities than ever before
Once so easy to frighten
Once easy to quash my ideas
Now I stand proud and enlightened
With knowledge gained from my years
Brave new beginnings around me
From them, I will not turn
Each little twist of destiny
Leaves a lesson for me to learn
Begin Again
Same old, same old, tired tropes. Should auld acquaintance be forgot…
Around the world, global elites resolve to save the world – or not.
Resolutions aren’t solutions; those require more give, less take;
more you, less me, less posturing. Chief’s image isn’t what’s at stake.
And in domestic situations, is it worth my good intentions?
Setting myself up to fail with taxing goals, painful abstentions.
New beginnings start with baby steps – even a crawl.
My resolutions this year won’t be grand; I’m starting small.
Rall:
beginnings
new in the new year
do not hide
from the truth
face up to reality
make better changes
New Beginnings in 2026
I’ve stopped making New Year Resolutions. According to Psychology Today 80-90% of New Year Resolutions fail. However, I still have goals and wishes for the new year. Instead of making promises I try to make changes at my own pace. One of them is that I’ve started using the Peloton bike that we bought for my wife. Another is trying to adapt to my new role as a grandfather. Our first grandchild Jack was born at the end of September 2024. Yet another new beginning is that I want to focus slightly more on my relatively new blog superfactful that I started in August of 2024. In 2024 I posted 25 super facts and in 2025 I posted 53. I also made 64 other kinds of posts on this blog. I am hoping to one day to have collected 200 super facts. My hope is that I will post 80 super facts in 2026. Let’s see how far I get.
To read more of the post, click here
For Thomas’s second post on the prompt on Opening a Pet Treat Bakery, click here
A New Year, Gone Too Soon
it would have been another year—
new beginnings,
new adventures,
new mishaps,
new joys.
but the universe had other plans,
and heaven called you home
just as the clock struck midnight.
New sunny day
Amidst the snow
Makes everything bright
Gives us hope for the new year
New plans, new lists, new trips
New perspective, new surprises
Help From Heaven:
Sometimes You Have To Pray A Selfish Prayer
Thankful for new beginnings, as I look at my wonderful husband.
He spent Christmas Eve and Christmas morning in the hospital.
I prayed a selfish prayer that God would not take him from me.
I woke on the couch near his hospital bed with him trying to kiss me.
And I rejoiced for more time together.
panaecea:
Winter Rituals
Every season is a new beginning.
Every season has its rituals in this part of the world. And what is ritual without food and feast!!!
Winter sees the markets fill up with fresh, shining vegetables which are not available/do not taste good in other seasons. There are bright red carrots, creamy white cauliflowers, shiny mauve and white turnips. So, we have the most delicious combination of tangy and sweet vegetable pickle which goes so well with stuffed paranthas.
It’s winter and the kitchen does not smell of homemade desserts? How can it be? So carrots are grated, boiled in milk and sugar with clarified butter and topped with dry fruits and nuts with a sprinkling of khoya (dried condensed milk) . And lo! Gajar ka halwa or carrot halwa is ready to be served hot.
The lush greens in the vegetable cart beckon. It’s time for palak paneer (spinach and paneer curry), sarson da saag ( mustard leaf curry) and methi aaloo (fenugreek leaves and potato curry). If sarson da saag is plated can makki di roti (roti made of corn/maize floor) be far behind? Another deadly combo is bajre ki roti with lahasun ki chutney. Roti made out of pearl millet flour and garlic chutney.
Winter is also the season of stuffed paranthas. – cauliflower, cabbage, Fenugreek leaves, radish, carrot, paneer (curdled milk), potato – grated or chopped, stuffed into a basket/bowl of wheat floor dough, rolled into fluffy rounds and slow fried on an iron pan with ghee, to be had with assorted pickles, especially, garlic pickle, to keep the body warm and soul satiated.
In Bengal this is the time for date juice jaggery and sweets made out of it. The window for date jaggery is very narrow because it’s only available from late November to the end of January. The rassagollahs and karaa pak and naram pak made out of khejur gur or date jaggery are out of this world and a must have. This is also the season of joynagorer moa another sweetmeat which is to be had fresh before they become dry and sour. Thankfully, all these are now available in the capital. You just have to make the effort of going to the particular shop.
Then there is a mouthwatering assortment of vegetarian and non-vegetarian kebaabs charcoal cooked in tandoor or fried in a pan.
Winter brings crippling cold but also with it a feast of delicacies. Every household smells of family recipes exclusive to it. The latest that I am introduced to is sweet carrot pulao!! Grated carrots in Basmati rice tempered with cardamon, cinnamon and clove, put in dum with sugar and garnished with dry fruits and nuts. Yummy!! I am going to try it out soon.
Would you like to join me???
Andrew
Andrew is successful, attractive, and charming, and bone weary this New Years Eve. All he wants is a quiet evening at home with his wife of twelve years, Jenette.
He wants to get the kids in bed early, chill with some Netflix and most of all, he wants to be tucked safely in bed well before the ball drops ushering in the new year. And all of these are completely achievable goals as Andrew is spending this New Year’s Eve with his adoring wife- who will always go above and beyond to make sure that every moment he is not ‘on the road for business’ is spent doing whatever makes him happy.
The fly in the ointment, however, is that Andrew doesn’t travel for business. He never has. In fact, that one simple stretch of the truth- made in a desperate moment over a decade ago- was only the start of an intricate web of deceits- even Andrew has trouble untangling at times.
So tonight, as Andrew kisses Jenette good night, wishes her a Happy New Year and slips off to bed at 10:30- four other women in the same city who met on a Facebook Group that organizes events for women not interested in finding male companionship- four unsuspecting women who believe they are in monogamous relationships- four trusting women who believe their partner is out of town on business- are all stepping into the same nightclub.
What only Andrew knows is that- these four women all share one crucial detail- him. Each of them believes she is the only one- and because he has successfully kept them separate for so many years, he has become so confident in his ability to compartmentalize them, that it no longer occurs to him that their worlds might somehow collide.
Andrew has juggled this New Years Eve ritual for years- so he has his “Happy New Year, Beautiful” texts scheduled and ready to go out to each woman, at precisely midnight. He has his phone off and in the bedroom with him and drifts off into what he has every expectation will be a peaceful rejuvenating sleep.
But for the four ladies brought together by circumstance who have just met each other and are ringing in the new year together at the club, his perfect timing could not be any more catastrophic.
You see, these four women have been drinking together all evening, and have long since undergone the alcohol induced bonding that takes place between strangers causing them to believe they have all been besties forever by the time the countdown is on.
So as the DJ prepares to announce the birth of a new year, the four women pose together with their newly found besties- and at precisely midnight- four women receive four identical messages- from four identical contact photos- with one name in common- Andrew.
Meanwhile, Andrew, safely tucked in bed, with his adoring wife Jenette curled up beside him- has no idea that his carefully choreographed New Years Eve ritual text messages are being screenshotted, compared, forwarded, and dissected by four women who suddenly realize they’ve been living parallel lives.
So yes- this New Year will ring in a season of new beginnings for the five households caught in Andrew’s tangled web of deceit. Five families shaken to their very foundations, yet drawn together by the disaster he set in motion.
And when the dust finally settles, and it will, Andrew will be the only one that walks away alone.
***
Image credit: Pinterest
Esther Chilton 
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