It’s #FiveMinuteFriday!
So, here’s the skinny: every Friday for over a year hundreds of people join a kind of writing flash mob over here.
We write for five minutes flat. All on the same prompt that I post here at 1 minute past midnight EST ever Friday. And we connect on Twitter with the hashtag #FiveMinuteFriday
No extreme editing; no worrying about perfect grammar, font, or punctuation.
Unscripted. Unedited. Real.
Are you ready?
GO
WELCOME
To be totally honest, I never truly felt welcome there. With them.
Or maybe it was that I was never truly welcomed.
Always the outsider. Never really a part of the family.
Even though that was supposed to be what I was.
Something just never really clicked.
Or possibly the clique was too firmly established to admit someone else.
Too inwardly focused.
Too selfish. Both in the individual parts and in the whole.
That is the only explanation I can seem to come up with for how I was so easily dropped like a rock by people I believed cared about me.
And honestly, even then the explanation makes no sense whatsoever to me.
But from that experience I learned – totally and completely – the truth about real relationship, true friendship, and who my family really is – because I have seen what those things are not.
I found a group of people who opened their doors, their arms, and their hearts to me. They aren’t all talk and no walk. They have become the family I never had. A true family that reflects the love of Jesus and encourages me, edifies me, and welcomes me just the way I am, scars and all.
Just like Jesus did.
STOP
Wanna play? Here’s how:
1. Write for 5 minutes flat – no editing, no over thinking, no backtracking.
2. Link back here and invite others to join in.
3. And then absolutely, no ifs, ands or buts about it, you need to visit the person who linked up before you & encourage them in their comments.
Related articles
- Five Minute Friday: Welcome (Even a Girl Like Me – joycannis.wordpress.com)
- Five Minute Friday: Welcome (livelifewithyourkids.wordpress.com)
- Five Minute Friday: Grasp (pilgrimwanderings.wordpress.com)
Hi there, stopping by from FMF. It’s so wild how we all have the need and desire to belong. It makes me happy to hear that you’ve found your group to make you feel welcome. I enjoyed reading your post because you were so transparent about how you were feeling.
Posted by Kacey | October 4, 2012, 11:57 pmThanks for stopping by and commenting! It’s so amazing how many of us have the same struggles. I’m learning that being transparent and honest are the only ways to both receive healing and help others to heal.
Posted by Nancy | October 5, 2012, 6:26 amstopping by from five minute friday.
I am so sorry you had to experience that. But glad you found true friends, people that love you for who you are. that is true welcoming and happiness.
Posted by Karen | October 5, 2012, 12:07 amThanks, Karen! Yeah, as painful as this year has been, it’s also been incredibly freeing. It’s awesome to be accepted by a group of people with no strings attached.
Posted by Nancy | October 5, 2012, 6:30 amOh Nancy….I want to wrap my arms around you and squeeze the love and understanding I feel right into your heart. This was so eloquently, truthfully spoken. I…oh I do relate to this. It touched on experiences I had all too recently in my past state of residence.
You are valid in your feelings. You are not alone. But you are free to have those emotions – they are real. Your experience was real. And unique to you, yet transferable in slight ways to us, the Body, who’ve walked similar roads.
I’m trying my best, through keys and screens and sentences to hug you now. Sister, I’m sorry you had to walk through that valley, but you sound so wise in taking the wisdom from it, and most importantly to see Him in that valley – seeing what He will do with it, what He wants to grow you in – draw you ever-nearer to His view of you.
Keep walking. Keep standing tall. One of my favorite verses of late is Psalm 37:23-24 “The steps of a man are established by the Lord,
And He delights in his way.
24 When he falls, he will not be hurled headlong,
Because the Lord is the One [a]who holds his hand.” (NASB)
Your hand is tightly grasped by the One who will always stabilize you. Even when your world rocks around you. Even when you hurl forward, you will not strike your head, you will not fall fully down. He has you. Always.
Posted by Leigh Kay (@jl_kay) | October 5, 2012, 12:52 pmWow, Leigh Kay. Just. Wow. THANK YOU.
Posted by Nancy | October 5, 2012, 1:17 pm