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Julie Ainger

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Oct, 2021

Stories (500)
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500 Stories

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A Force to be Reckoned With.

Love.Ugh. A four letter word😏.Love demands. (pf) A lot. Of us. Ourselves.It presents itself in a myriad of ways and means and meanings.Demanding. Yep.Impossible at times. Most certainly. The expectation of one thing. And then getting another thing. Often leaves us scratching our heads.It requires a self-discipline beyond human measure. A compassion that knows no bounds. A responsibility to put another’s needs before our very own. The friendship of diving in the deep end with another human with work and courage all mixed together in a perseve...

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Keep Watch. Stay Ready.

The Alpha.The Omega.First.Last.Beginning.End.Alway and Always.”The end will restore what was broken in the beginning.” (psp)Sometimes we search and search for a heaven-like existence down here on planet earth. We care to look heavenly, eat heavenly, smoke heavenly etcetera. We obsess about winning. Beating the other guy. Frenemies and enemies waltz and dance. Lie and cheat. Skirt important issues about life double crossing each other and separating the minutiae of truth with a sharp knife.We walk along trying to make sense of the waltz’s and...

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Resentful Revenge and the Silent Soufflé of Missing the Main Point

Perusing the possibilities. Whatcha lookin’ for?Tan. Brown. Black. Or Bone.Baked?A dish.Until puffed up.Quite a dish.When the air is void, out of the careful constructive early or morning creation.A collapse of all that is innocent.Is a mish mosh of straw-slurping delections,So “yummy”.Truth be told.The truth is rarely told. (rs)In the meantime?Slicing.Dicing.Hoping.Pounding.Beating.Swishing.Flipping.Will not make it all go away.Savory or Sweet.Makes little difference.Blow a bubble?Blow a Souffler?Blow it out your barracks bag.Even at broile...

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An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

The Confirmation of Conformation.Ouch.That CAN actually hurt.What?A pinch of the cheek?🥹Possibly.A pinch of salt.😲Tasty?Possibly.Ohhhhhhhhhhh.Yes. How in the world did I miss the obvious one?A pinch of forgiveness.😇Most assuredly.Hurts.As in OUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Leaves a bad taste in someone’s mouth, too. Someones’s mouths. With the rush to judgment as swift and quick as a dash for the Listerine—( the non-alcoholic option, of course)Parsley anyone?……..The missing ingredient to wholeness?Many are called.Few are chosen.The gift of God, keeps on...

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Hand Held

Invisible.Yet.Out in the open.Hidden.LikeA heart on a sleeve.Gone.But not forgotten.Bent.But not broken.Tested.Beyond measure.Fallen.Cannot get up.Tripped over.Didn’t see it coming.Skipped over.Time and again.Whispers.To a scream.Nightmare.Instead of a dream.Ridiculed.By those who knew better.Recipient.Time and again.Running around.In circles.Boxed in.Boxed out.Checked in.Checked out.IntimidationSilences again.Barriers to communication come at us with our own hands and the hands of one another. Barriers come from behind when the final goal i...

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Object permanence

Tracking displacement is an exercise in the strength of the soul.Day to Day.Day by Day.We all have many and specific opportunities to live in service of one another.Day to Day.Day by Day.There are many factors, many influencers, many roadblocks that hinder our best efforts and energies in doing the right thing. In serving others with love and care.We don’t always know it when we see it.The opportunity.We struggle and fight for a place in this world which oftentimes seems so fleeting and cheap. We wish for more. We hope for more. In the end w...

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The Book Report about Falling Short

“To err is human, to forgive is divine.” (ap)An Essay in Criticism, by Alexander Pope. As writing in Eighteenth Century Pope’s Essay, goes:Some tidbits of wisdom.“Bad criticism does greater harm than bad writing.””True Ease in Writing comes from Art, not Chance,/ As those move easiest who have learn’d to dance. (ap)💃🕺🏻“A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.” (ap)Indeed.Sliced, dices, blown to smithereens in some instances.Fast forward to the now that is this century.Information recycling takes on whole new meanings ofTruth or Dare.Force th...

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The Mendacity of Hope

Cumulus was getting bigger as time went on. A life of mishmash had caught up to the moment, albeit a life that presented itself as the pinnacle of organization. Pointed, organized thought. Ordered, set in stone, a life of rigid leisure.What lied beneath, no one knew the half of it.Where to turn during times of despair was an empty, fruitless attempt, like- biting into an apple and finding half of a worm.Yuck.🤢Couldn’t hold it in, hold it together long enough to get to the next episodic life transition, yet was wondering why things were build...

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Keeping score while wandering alone in the Mundo

Nope.Not worth it.The chase becomes the race becomes the race and finally the chase.The tiny little salt shakers of life filled with the golden crystals of life. Of sale, exchange and trade. What ends up happening is theHook.One way or another it makes its way into our front doors.In the corners of the minds. And. Hearts of a few.Legally.Illegally.Sneakily.In small amounts.In larger amounts.Among trains, planes and automobiles.In four squared packages wrapped neatly in brown paper bagged wrapping paper-like the anticipation of the former bro...

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The lure of Seirenes’ comb and mirror and vice and virtue in Purgatorio

Ouch!That hurts.We learn from experience the holding cell of purgatory is our own self-inflicted wounds.And.Unfortunately, at times, the feeling, the pain, it is inflicted by another.As young and innocent often children learn when seated too close to one another may discover. The fidgety wheel, the squeakiest wheel often gets the oil😳. The attention. In the moment, Makes little difference if the attention is good or bad, positive or negative.Until the fallout. Of what just happened. Why did it happened begins the journey of what ifs and whod...

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The First Shall Be Last and The Last Shall Be First.

It.Practice makes perfect.It.A lot comes down to.It.Who wants “it” more.Then.What they are willing to do to get “it”.Person specificity. Special needs. And all the in between options.Aren’t we all just so “special”.The landscape and playing fields are “leveling” at rapid paces. Where will you be? Where will you be standing? Up or down. Falling all over yourself🫵🏻?Or.Chasing after your dreams.Running them down even?Mowing them down….Left behind.Left field😏Sooooooooooooooo.How bad DO you want “it”.Fearful of missing out of it, out on “it” so m...

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Get to work? Take a nap? Search Siri’s plan? Read a “friggin’ map?

As for me and my house.We like to know where we are goin’.☺️And. In the end.Siri is not gonna get us “there.”The best things in life are not free.(Siri has been lookin’ over your shoulder for far too long) Keeping score, tallying up the debts and deficits.Far. Too. Long.Really?Yes.In the meantime.Someone. Somewhere. Somehow. Someway.Is picking up the slack.🙏🏻🤗Hurray.Now what.Embrace the beauty in the ugliness of the me that is we. Well. If a shower is not beyond the horizon….a fist pump will do!😏🤜🏻🤛🏻The beauty in a day, is to realize we are ...

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You could hear a pin drop.

Except for the quiet ticking.On the wall.So quiet. So faint.The eyes tried to follow the faintness.The head turned in scary-slow-motion, to look over the shoulder.To see what it was.Tick. Tock. The pendulum went.Back and forth the arguments lent.Mistruths. Lies. And The corresponding stories.Told. Re-Told. Told again.And. Again. And. Again.The ultimate traffic jam of words, deceptions, receptions—before any union or re-union even took place. Ordered. Disordered.In the end, does it even matter?Yes.Yep.And. All things Okeedokee.No acquiescence...

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Assurance. Reassurance. Issuance. Reissuance. The Joke now called Pickleball.

Perpetual Perpetuity.And all things medi, pedi, and unsteady.Wait.What?No one likes to look at anyone else’s feet😝So what happens?We whack around a wiffle ball in honor of pickles.Wait.What?You heard me.Correctly.You just don’t want to admit.That.You heard me correctly.After all. Land is rapidly becoming a scarcity.Where you sit. Where you stand. While under our ever living Covid-noses-has already been sold to a highest bidder somewhere on this earth……Scary.Yes.Early Halloween ghosts and goblins scary?Passed that a long time ago. That kinda ...

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The more things change the more they stay the same

A New Day.A New Song.Take a hike.Take a walk.With people and strangers who used to be friends, who may turn out to be the same as the enemy you never thought you knew. Do you ever feel like you, yourself and you are running around in circles? Feel like less is more but more might be “nice.” Minimalism exists for you, yourself and you. Not for others, because it is too “easy” to tell a quick lie over a hard truth?We’ve all been there. Blaming this or that or him or her. Them. The Club. The Group.The Team.Do you feel as if you are always settl...

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