These Hands Do So Much

The other day, when I laid with my youngest for a nap, I placed my hand atop her small one. As I thought about the difference in size, and in experiences, I realized how much could be attributed to these hands of mine.

With them, in just thirty years, I have held small treasures and caressed larger ones. They have curled around tools and implements, followed the pattern of a mother's hands and done the duties of a student, employee, volunteer. My hands have folded together in prayer, wiped tears--mine and others'--and held on for dear life. They've clapped in joy and in rhythm, waved as many goodbyes as hellos, and led me down the path toward my writing dream.

They are already a trophy, of sorts.

What have you done with your hands?

I'll Take a Prompt, Please

In the last few weeks I've discovered how much I enjoy writing prompts. That is, when you take the one-word or sentence suggestion from someone and write something about it.

I first followed a prompt here, coming up with a short fiction piece called Shayna's Secret. That particular exercise was a lot of fun, and I got great feedback.

And earlier this week, Angie Ledbetter posted a picture on her blog. In the picture was a brightly painted bus and, if you looked closely at the sign, you could see its destination was a cemetary. Angie called her readers to write a plot blurb about that bus, or the people on that bus, and why they may be going to the cemetary. She considered it a contest, and I found out today I share the trophy with a few others. Thanks, Angie! It was another exercise I really enjoyed. Here's my blurb...

She knew the bus ride was significant, for it represented her transportation between two lives. The destination awaiting her, the cemetery, meant the end of one life, the beginning of another. She’d say goodbye to the woman she used to be, there, at the small headstone engraved with her given name. And there she’d take on her new name, embrace her new self, begin the new life she had no choice but to live...

So it's now that I want to ask my readers for more prompts. Do you have any ideas you'd like to see me flesh out? Give me a word or phrase, or a sentence, and I'll do my best to come up with something. I only ask that you keep in mind what you already know about me, and keep your requests wholesome and clean (scary or offbeat is okay). Depending on the response, I may not be able to use all the prompts, but I'll span them over the course of several days.

So. Have any good ones for me?