Five Star Friday's 136th Edition Is Brought to You By Rudyard Kipling

This Five Star Friday roundup is brought to you by an offensive television show, winter, a visit with a father, a will, Laura Ingalls Wilder, a little boy and God, the key to happiness, the right to choose, morbid imagination, stolen knitting, an old house, housekeeping, infertility and miscarriage, developmental delays, parenting difficult children, censorship, hope, denial, nurture, gender, giving ourselves a break, a cat, and Rudyard Kipling:

No one thinks of Winter when the grass is green.

     — Rudyard Kipling

Stick urls to your own good writing in the comments to share it around.

Happy Friday!

"Resolutions" from Fever:

He tells me about God. About what God tells him. About what he feels in his heart to be the truth. And I listen.

I never contradict him. Or tell him what other people believe. All I ask is that he shares his beliefs with me when he feels moved to do so and request that if anyone tells him that what he believes is false that he tell them to go shove it. In gentler terms, of course. But I don't want him to feel that what he thinks that God is telling him is wrong. Because the stuff he says God tells him? Is pretty damned mindblowing. Or, not damned. I think that's probably a poor word choice.

"Notes On 'Heavy'" from The Fat Nutritionist

"Pooping Your Pants May Be the Key to Happiness" from Miss Britt

"Make a Donation to Planned Parenthood" from Margaret and Helen:

I find it funny how universal healthcare is big government gone bad, but somehow the government crawling up my uterus and telling me what choice to make isn't. Odd how giving patients information about end of life options is a "death squad for Grandma" but sonograms before abortions are simply souvenirs for the family photo album.

"Denial Is a River In Egypt" from Suebob's Red Stapler

"Falling" from Bag Lady

"On Being a Bear" from Red Dirt Chronicles:

There was a time when my youngest would tell people that when she grew up, she was going to be a bear. She did not mean that she would dress up like a bear, or that she would be aggressive, or that she would marry someone and change her last name to "Bear"… she meant she would literally become a bear. If you pressed her a bit she would tell you that she was going to be a "Brown Bear" like in Eric Carle's book. She was 2.

"Dinner With Dad" from Tales From Beyond the End of the World

"Letter to a Thief" from Mary Scott Huff

"Beautiful" from The State of Discontent:

I wanted to say, four years ago I hid with that boy you see there in a phone booth in a restaurant, unable even to make it out the exit, holding the booth door shut with one hand and desperately trying to calm him with the other while his face flushed and his eyes bulged and he screamed a terrible wild pained scream, as if I were beating the life right out of him, because he had been overwhelmed by the noise of the crowd, and I was half-convinced that any moment someone would call the police.

"'Us Lucky'" from Toddler Planet

"Villa Sainte Marie — A Story" from The Domesticated Bohemian

"I Was One of Those Kids" from A Design So Vast:

I related intensely to the kids in the movie, and to a culture that praises highly performance and achievement. At one point in the movie a teacher says, in response to parents being surprised when their kids struggle or fall apart or otherwise cave under the pressure: "They all say, ‘but my kid's a good kid!' And I always say back, ‘You know your kid's a good performer. How do you know they're a good kid?’"

"It Gets Better" from Stop Paying Attention

"The Wrong Day of the Week" from Birdykins

"Snow Blight" from Not a Girl, Not Yet a Wino:

I'm not sure if you've heard, but we've had some snow in these parts. Last night, DC and its nether regions were hit with close to a foot of snow. We're generally awful at dealing with moisture from the sky, but during this storm we were particularly ill prepared. Close to 100 cars were abandoned on the George Washington Parkway alone, cars drained of gas and drivers similarly void of patience. My dearests' commutes were both seven hours each; that's 420 minutes post-work spent idling, stopped and skidding through greater DC.

I can't have this happen to me. And if it does, I'd like to be prepared.

"Pioneer Day" from A Little Pregnant

"O Is for Oxygen" from The Squashed Bologna

"Bewitched" from Lesbian Dad:

"You've influenced me emotionally," she explains. She knows where she has come from; what part I do and don't have in it; how our Special Uncle Pat (and by extension his family) gave to our family what I didn't have to give.

"You helped me get born emotionally." Repetition, for emphaisis and clarity.

"Freedom of Choice vs. Freedom from Choice" from The World According to Jennifer

"'I've grown certain that the root of all fear is that we've been forced to deny who we are.'" from Spin Me I Pulsate

"Don't Get Too Excited" from Fiinslippy:

The Universe is busy with other things, like birthing galaxies and expanding. It's not looking askance at anyone for thinking too much of themselves. So why not be exactly as excited or pleased or hopeful as we're feeling? Just let ourselves be, for once? Cut ourselves a huge goddamn break? The disappointments and bad news will come no matter what we do, but meanwhile, keeping yourself in check in anticipation of that moment is just a terrible shame.

"The Black Cat" from The Cheeseblog

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Comments

[Varda (SquashedMom)]

Hey, I'm so excited to find myself here on 5 Star Friday! To whoever recommended me, and to you, Schmutzie, for picking me... many thanks! (I have a nasty-rotten head cold, and my lovely-but- exhausting autistic son has no school tomorrow, so I really needed something good to happen to me today.)

[Julie]

Hey, neat! Thanks.

[Joey]

So excited to be linked here on Five Star Friday! I don't know how it happened, but it is definitely a good thing! The blog Red Dirt Chronicles is actually made up of many contributers and I think we're all really good. I hope that people who click the link will poke around a bit after reading my essay. Thanks for the honor! Keep up the great work!

[Jaelithe]

Thanks for the mention. It's always an honor to be noticed by someone with such very good taste in writing as you have, S.

[clara]

Thank you, Schmutzie.