Your writing prompt this week is
LEAVE/S
It was while I was out for an autumn stroll that this week’s prompt came to mind. I loved the carpet of rustic reds, honey golds and pumpkin oranges that paved my way. But, of course, leave or leaves has many different meanings – to bequeath or to go away from are just a couple of others. What does this week’s prompt word mean to you?
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 MONEY.
Another Worthless Whine
The money saved deflates away.
The gold though doesn’t care.
The silver, too,
like morning dew,
is true, but gone somewhere.
Only with money
he was her honey.
Without a dime
to her he was grime.
Double Dog Dare
What’s that splotch on your forehead?
I won. That’s what matters.
You won? What?
Cash money!
NO! How? What did you do?
So Jimmy and me was in the park by the river.
Were.
Were what?
You and Jimmy WERE in the park.
I know. I just said.
Forget it. Go on.
Well… there’s this tree.
Yes?
And it’s got these knobs and a big bendy branch.
And?
Jimmy dared me to climb to the top and shimmy down the bendy part. Bet me ten bucks.
You didn’t.
Did. Head first. WINNER!
Except for your head.
Totally worth it!
Rall
money money money
it’s a rich man’s world
but you could never be sure
if all your friends galore
liked you for your money
or your personality so sunny
Money for food
Money for booze
All that consumption
Can make one snooze
Money Is Not The Problem – Greed Is
Whether we carry cash or use electronic means, such as online banking or Bitcoin, money is not the problem. As a former Sociology professor, I believe that greed causes so much harm and leads to injustice, competitiveness, and hate. First Timothy 6:9-10 states, “Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.”
It was greed for land occupied by Native Americans that led to the Trail of Tears and the near genocide of Native Americans. It was that same greed that distorted Christianity to fit capitalist aims, utilizing the notion of Manifest Destiny —the idea that Europeans were on a God-given mission. It rationalized taking the land by any means necessary, including killing the people, even children, and labeling them as savages who were incapable of being civilized. This same greed justified slavery, segregation, and racial inequality in the United States.
Greed leaves a grubby splotch on the soul of a nation, where the majority of people across races, ethnicities, genders, and social classes must continuously fight each other for a small percent of the nation’s wealth, even as the top 20 percent own nearly 80 percent of it. Greed, the desire to have money at any cost to others, is the cause of so much conflict. It leads to ideas of superiority and inferiority, rationalizing inequality and injustice. If everyone could be content with having the basics and with sharing the wealth of the world, so much pain, violence, and prejudice could be eliminated, and wars would cease. Money is not the issue; greed is.
Sadly our leaders have no idea of the financial struggles many are facing as they enjoy their high salaries, expense accounts and perks of the job.
For the majority of us, anything extra is subject to taxation, and even then TPTB want more.
As a kid, money was tight in our house, but we never went without the important things.
I had to earn my pocket money, and more was up for grabs if I offered to babysit the kids next door or help Bro and his first wife with cleaning their flat.
I was encouraged to save for the things I wanted that were not necessities, which made me value them even more.
I was not obsessed with money, but my family misunderstood and bought me LEGO™
instead of Meccano™. The little people and cars etc weren’t available then, just bricks, roof tiles, windows, doors, and base boards. I was forever building money boxes, some had slopes for coins, divisions for notes, and separate compartments for coppers and silver.
I guess it was no surprise then that most of my working life has been in accounts, banking or number crunching of some description.
Money In Master Basho’s time…
few shu
less mon
in my pouch
I offer mon
To the priest
Shu to kojiki
At home I check
my koku and steam
one small bowl
Out of Joint Account
What are you buying, honey?
Joe was careful about the money
Hmmm….a new suit for you, electric blue!
But wifey dear
Let me be clear
The gifts from you
End up costing me, too!
Oh Joe, can’t you just
Know that I must
Give you a present
Accept and be pleasant?
I know you’re the earner
But try to learn, dear
Reason for the dinero
Shows you you’re my hero
Just expressing my love.
No Refund
We’re much richer than it seems,
When we live within our means.
Days are never really sunny
With every thought concerned with money.
One day, heed you could have paid,
Amounts to more than what you’ve made.
‘Cuz unseen little things, once lost,
Come at a nonrefundable cost.
“Give me all your money.”
“What’s that in your pocket?”
“It’s my gun.”
“Smells funny.”
“Okay it’s a pastrami sandwich.”
“So you can’t shoot me?”
“No, but I really need the money.”
“How much for the sandwich?”
“Five bucks.”
“Sold.”
Material Match
Make me an offer. Then
offer me more.
Never forsake me when
expenses soar.
You’re flush with a fortune
that I can spend fast,
avoiding the chill shadow
loan’s spectre casts.
Know I will love you
so long as it lasts.
The air conditioned nightmare
The land of milk and honey
Not a worry, not a care
Just God and Guns and Money
Praise the Lord and pay your dues
Where ancient feet once trod
Democracy. So much to choose
From Money, Guns and God
A place to grow, to see the light
A place to raise your sons
If they’re white they’ll be alright
With Money, God and Guns
Where buffalo no longer roam
So sad that now it’s funny
The lights are on but no one’s home
Just God and Guns and Money
The Inheritance
When Roger Granger’s uncle died, the lawyer’s voice dripped with gravity as he read the will: “To my nephew, who never amounted to much, I leave everything. Perhaps money will teach him what I could not.”
Overnight, Roger went from a man who owed the corner bar to one who could buy it outright, which he did. He bought laughter next, loud and fleeting, wrapped in perfume and false promises. The women called him “darling,” “dear,” and “sugar,” and he lapped up every syllable. Champagne became his breakfast, and poker tables his pews.
When the first million vanished, he shrugged it off. When the second followed, he called it a “learning experience.” By the third, he was too drunk to count.
The final blow came from a “can’t-miss” investment in a chain of luxury pet hotels, suggested by a woman he couldn’t remember and a man he shouldn’t have trusted.
Two years after the inheritance, Roger stood in the same bar he’d once owned, nursing a cheap beer bought with borrowed cash. The bartender didn’t even recognize him.
He laughed softly to himself, staring at the empty glass. “Well, Uncle,” he said, “you were right. Money did teach me something: I can’t be trusted with it.”
It has been prevailed on us that money is a prerequisite of a good, happy, comfortable and secured life.
Money does give a sense of security, comfort and confidence. But the richest person on earth is not always the happiest. Leading a good life again depends more on intent than resources.
Security and happiness are mindsets which are unrelated to income. I have seen the daily earners to be more grounded and contented than the entitled class.
It is a common saying that a rich person suffers sleepless nights. A person who has less does not worry less either. So if you are moneyed or not you still have insecurities and sorrows.
But money is definitely an enabler and gives the cushion to explore, experiment and experience life. However, the amount of money required for contentment is relative. For some less is more and for others more is less.
Having said that money is a must for red letter days. It saves a lot of trouble to have money at your disposal during exigent circumstances. Money is also a perquisite we enjoy in old age. It enables us to have a life of choice post retirement.
However, the very nature of money is transactional. Movement is intrinsic to money – it comes and goes – and therefore needs to be handled with care.
We are taught to value money, the worth of habitual saving and the ethical means of earning and spending as it is as transient and elusive as any other attainment in life.
However, money is often misused as a differentiator and a social evaluator.
Money, in the final analysis, is necessary as it fulfills basic needs, helps in actualisation of higher aspirations and sustains in emergent situations. But it should not be considered a substitute for every other thing which makes our limited stay on this planet beautiful, memorable and worthwhile.
Poetisinta:
Paved
In shadow’s sighs
where forgotten dreams
unravel like threadbare tapestries
he sits, a moth,
trapped in an open glass jar
fluttering against the weight of loss,
fingers bruised
against wet pain,
clouds psilling silver
down rain-slick streets,
soaking the skin,
he sees a flower bursting
through a cvrack,
petals flutter away
and time drips
like honey from a broken hive,
dops of fools gold
slip through chapped hands
still, he will chase these
into the cavernous night
where beneath black skies
his thoughts twist like vines
taste like rust,
the tang of loss mingling
with the hope of tomorrow
in this landscape of yearning
he reaches out
where the air shimmers
feeling the rush of feet
– all he needs
is a single coin
or a kind word
So you all know my dad’s brother passed away last week.
And mom had to contact the insurance people about his life insurance policy. That is done, and she received paperwork back.
But in order to get the money a lot of hoops have to be jumped through.
My dad had no passport. Since my dad is next of kin, he needs to get one.
So today my sister applied for a passport for my dad.
We don’t know how long that will take to arrive, but it was a bit of a fiasco applying for it.
Apparently it took 4 attempts to get the photo of my dad correct and get it to go through for the application.
Then dad had to go to the guards and get the forms signed.
Also my mom is trying to get my uncle’s death certificate, she has an appointment next week to register his death and get the certificate.
It costs 25 euro for a death certificate. It is all money.
The passport was 75 euros.
There is so much to do when someone dies. It is definitely very stressful.
Mom told me today that she is going to go through all of her box of papers, write down everything that my sister and I need to know, just in case something happens to her or my dad.
I think that is a good plan.
Money
for some, success is simply money,
a prize they’ll chase through dark and sunny.
they’ll turn the world, both high and low,
to claim the wealth that they bestow.
some earn it with blood and sweat,
through struggle, pain, and hard-earned debt.
that path is tough, but full of grace,
a journey that no one can replace.
yet others take the easier road,
where shortcuts are the heavy load.
they scam, they steal, they lie, they cheat,
their hands are stained by others’ defeat.
they’ll run for power, for wealth untold,
with empty promises, their hearts grow cold.
they’ll turn on family, friends, and kin,
leaving debts unpaid, and trust within.
it’s sad to see, yet truth remains,
that some will thrive through others’ pains.
but in the end, the path they take,
will only bring the soul to break.
Ten Money Facts
This is not a super fact but a collection of interesting facts regarding money.
Money is a Shared Fiction, a Myth
Money is a fiction that depends on the trust that we collectively put in it. In his book Sapiens, History Professor Yuval Noah Harari argues that money is a “myth”, or a “shared fiction” because its value is not an objective, physical reality but a collective belief. This imagined order allows for mass cooperation by creating a universally accepted, albeit artificial, medium of exchange that can bridge the gap between strangers who don’t know or trust each other personally. When people cease to believe in the value of money it ceases to have value.
Money is Not the Root of All Evil
The “root of all evil is money” is a common phrase that is a misquote of the biblical verse in 1 Timothy 6:10. According to the King James Version of the Bible it says, “For the love of money is the root of all evil: “. However, this is also not correct because it is a mistranslation. According to the New American Standard Bible – NASB 1995 (NASB1995), the New Century Version (NCV), the American Standard Version (ASV), the New King James Version (NKJV), the correct translation is “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil”. The latter makes a whole lot more sense. Not all evil is because of the love of money, but a lot of it.
The Wealth of the World is 500 Trillion Dollars
The world’s total net wealth in 2025 is estimated to be around 500 trillion, but there are other estimates. More than half of this, $260 trillion, is in stocks and bonds.
The Wealth of the United States is 160 Trillion Dollars
The United States has an estimated total wealth of approximately $160 trillion. The top 50% of the US population own 98% of that wealth. The bottom 50% of the US population owns 2% of that wealth. In Q3 2024, the top 1.3 million had a wealth of 49.2 trillion (31%), the next 65.2 million had a wealth of 106.8 trillion (67%), and the next 66.6 million had a wealth of 3.9 trillion (2%).
The Second Most Important Currency is the Euro
The Euro is the second most important currency after the US Dollar, which is the most important currency for borrowing, lending, and reserves.
US paper money is not paper
US paper mone is not made of paper; it’s a blend of 75% cotton and 25% linen to make it more durable.
Cacao Was Once a Currency
The ancient Aztecs used cacao beans as a form of money. Some Aztec taxes were paid in Cacao, and it was even used to pay workers. A single bean could buy you a tamale, while a few dozen might get you a rabbit.
Cash is Not Very Common
On the topic of digital money, it turns out that only 8% of the world’s currency is actually physical, the rest is online or card transactions.
For the rest, click here
Perched Upon Hurdles
Placing a smile on a little girl’s face. Etching the last word of a 200 page book. Playing the final note of a piece of music. Completing the 1st grade. Putting a tear in the eye of a reader. The last stroke of paint on a canvas. These are all success stories that may never be told but held deep within the heart of those who had the courage to believe in themselves.
We all need encouragement for those little wins and successful moments that have nothing to do with money but a tribute to the human spirit. The spotlight of the theatre takes a brief moment to shine upon these personal wins. They lack fame and glory but instill personal satisfaction that another hurdle of life was proudly accomplished.
A simple congratulations or just a “that’s wonderful news” builds faith and courage in a creative soul that longs to be acknowledged perched upon a noisy world filled with headlines and soundbites of those in the public sphere.
The story you know of money is both tidy and wrong. Economics textbooks describe a neat progression from primitive barter to commodity money to modern currency, each step solving inefficiencies in exchange. This narrative feels intuitive because it mirrors our assumptions about progress—that complex systems emerge from simple beginnings through rational improvement. The comfortable fiction persists because it transforms money into a neutral technology, a lubricant for commerce that emerged naturally from human ingenuity.
The archaeological record tells a very different story. Money did not emerge from trade but from blood—specifically, from the need to stop the flow. Before the first coin was minted, or the first market opened, or the first merchant calculated profit, money existed as a technology to measure loss and convert violence into obligation. To read money’s true nature is not academic curiosity but practical skill, the speculator’s edge that reveals where social energy pools and where it runs.
Anthropologists have spent decades searching for the barter economies that supposedly preceded money, yet none exist in the historical record. Extensive research reveals that debt and credit systems appeared before money, which itself appeared before barter. Small-scale societies operated through gift economies based on three obligations: to give, to receive, and to reciprocate. These weren’t mechanical exchanges but social bonds that created lasting relationships through “positive debt”—obligations that purposefully entwined lives and communities together . . .
For more, click here
It’s a busy street on a normal day
Call for customers, money change hands
Church bell rings, room with music and bands
Women try clothes, men get out of the way
Broken gadgets repaired, fruit weighed
As the man patiently wait on his stand
It’s a busy street on a normal day
Call for customers, money change hands
It’s a good deal, shake hands and pay
The power of haggling and back to his Benz
Business to conduct and all his plans
Still busy even when the clouds are grey
It’s a busy street on a normal day
When my family moved to Cape Town from George, we lived in rented homes for the first year. The first rented house was in a suburb called Kirstenhof and that was a bad experience as the carpets were full of fleas when we first moved in. Laura, a small baby at the time, and I were bitten repeatedly. I can still remember those horrible itchy bites that swelled to three times their size. I was the only one of the four of us girls whose bites swelled up. Cape Town is notorious for fleas. The bites stopped when my parents were forced to have the house fumigated.
The second cottage was in Fishhoek and was a great place to live. I have written other memories about our three months in that seaside village. Our third move was into a house my parents bought in a cul-de-sac called Seven Sleepers. The cul-de-sac ended just before a main road and had empty land on either side of the row of seven houses. Across the main road was a big shopping mall which had the attraction to me and Cath of a pot of honey to bees. All around our area, new houses were being build and Cath and I, together with a few friends of mixed ages, used to explore these half build houses over weekends when the workmen were away.
One day when we were mooching around a nearly completed house, we discovered several silver discs lying on the floor. They were the exact size of a twenty-cent piece. They had been punched out of the newly wired electricity board in the kitchen. My friend, Neil, had the inspired idea of trying out the ‘coins’ on the claw machine in the nearby mall. We all loved the machine. You dropped in a twenty-cent piece and could manipulate the claw and try to pick up a small stuffed toy. We were delighted when the machine took the fake money and we all had a few turns on the machine. We never managed to hook a toy, but it was still great fun.
The next weekend, we went back to the houses and foraged for more discs. We didn’t find a single one. The workmen had clearly taken the time to pick them up. It was most disappointing and our time on the claw machine reverted back to when one of us had a bit of pocket money to spend. In retrospect, it was a naughty thing to do and it’s just as well we didn’t win any toys, or I would have had that guilt to add to my memories.
shiny silver coins
could have led to bad trouble
luck was on our side
although we weren’t grateful then
workmen’s diligence saved us
Good Instincts
The champagne was still fizzing when the headlines hit- “Regulators Probe Sudden Crypto Surge.”
They sat in the glass-walled penthouse, city lights glittering like the money they’d conjured from code and whispers, laughing too loud, too long. Their phones buzzed with congratulatory texts and encrypted warnings, but every ping sounded like a countdown.
They told themselves it wasn’t insider info, just “good instincts,” as if the law cared about semantics- or the money trail.
When the knock came at the door, it wasn’t room service- it was the future, and it wanted receipts.
***
Esther Chilton 
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