Category Archives: Three things challenge

Three Things Challenge #891 – Tigger

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Di presents the Three Things Challenge every Thursday.

We are give with three things that may, or may not, be related. Simply read the prompt and see where your creativity takes you.

You can use one, two or all three words in your post, there are no restrictions regarding length, style, or genre apart from keeping it family friendly.

Remember to tag responses with 3TC, #threethingschallenge or #TTC and add the logo if you wish.

ADULT
CHILD
OFFSPRING

***

I’m supposed to be the adult, I thought as I scoffed the tub of Cookies and Cream.

I rinsed the tub and threw it into the recycling bin.

Then bounced around on a sugar high, singing and dancing around with a broom.

My husband asked, ‘where’s your off spring?’

You mean off switch?

‘I mean off spring. You’re like a Tigger right now.’

Boing, boing, I said, laughing.

‘Such a child,’ he said, shaking his head. ‘Where’s my ice cream?

#3tc; #TTC; #pensitivity101
Three Things Challenge

Three Things Challenge #833 – Disconnect

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Three Things Challenge set daily by Di.

We are presented with three things that may, or may not, be related. Simply read the prompt and see where your creativity takes you.

You can use one, two or all three words in your post, there are no restrictions regarding length, style, or genre apart from keeping it family friendly.

Remember to tag responses with 3TC, #threethingschallenge or #TTC and add the logo if you wish.

***

Words for #883 are: JEER, KETTLE, LEMON

***

The potential for disconnect is real.

Try not seeing your children for two years then coming out the other side with the same familial dynamic.

You can jeer. Children grow away, you say. It is natural.

We all know there are families out there who are more intimately entwined. Whose children visit regularly, no prompting. Who gather around Sunday dinner, no reason. Never miss a birthday, anniversary, Christmas.

Births, deaths.

We already compared ourselves to them, with that sour lemon taste of jealousy.

We struggled to quantify the quality of our familial bond when access was free and easy. By the time normal contact resumes, grown children have developed new norms that don’t include turning on the kettle, because Mum dropped by.

What a drag!

As the parent I can feel that ennui sneaking into my own psyche.

‘Really?’, it asks. ‘You want effort now?’

Three Things Challenge #708

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Today’s three words are poke, tap and press

* * *

“I could poke holes in your logic all day,” I said to Father Joe.

“Logic and faith,” said my girlfriend. “Do they go together?”

“I know that faith can seem illogical,” said Joe. “But trust in God does not in fact negate the application of reason. And reason depends on logic to come to understanding.

“Faith creates freedom to tap into deeper understanding. It buffers and strengthens in a world where logic rules, and reason often wanes.”

“I used to have faith in the press, Father,” I said. “I used to have faith in justice. It was how I was raised. Facts, laws and rules were the foundation of a good life.”

“They play a part,” said Joe. “In the modern world, do they work? So many are depressed, despairing at what is truth. To the believer, the only truth is God. Faith keeps us strong.”

“I wish I knew who to trust, that’s for sure,” said my girlfriend.

I looked at them both, traditional priest and modern woman. Two good people. Entirely different ways of walking the world. Two people I trusted.

“I thank you for your faith, Father,” I said. “I’m glad that you’re holding hard to a belief that encourages you to reach out and help the lost.”

“My son, I’m here for you both. When your first child arrives and you look at this world in despair you will then be ready, perhaps, to be inspired by faith,” Joe said.

He anointed us both, before ushering us through the old wooden doors, out into the unreasonable, illogical world of man.

Three Things Challenge is set daily by #pensitivity101

We are presented with three things that may, or may not, be related. Simply read the prompt and see where your creativity takes you.

You can use one, two or all three words in your post, there are no restrictions regarding length, style, or genre apart from keeping it family friendly.

Remember to tag responses with 3TC, #threethingschallenge or #TTC and add the logo if you wish.

Three Things Challenge #476

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To join this writing challenge, check out pensitivity101 for the “rules”: https://pensitivity101.wordpress.com/2021/01/12/three-things-challenge-476/

Your three things today are:

MISTRESS
EXPECTATION
ANYWHERE

My wildest dreams could not compete.
For such promise to come anywhere near bespectacled, bow-legged, book nerds such as myself, impossible.
I found her in a book. At least, I found the spell, temptation.
When I began to gather ingredients, it wasn’t serious.
Preparing the room was a laugh. Expectations were non-existent.
But there must have been a seed of hope. Otherwise, why did I take such care. Reading and reading again the words. Setting everything up, just right.
Candles fluttered, and curtains flapped in jerky, convulsive shudders.
Then, centre of the pentagram, there she was. Resplendent! Magnificent!
I squealed like a girl, danced on the spot, spinning, and spinning, hands to my face.
The spell promised a friend, confidante, love, and wealth. In one fair bundle.
A glimpse in the mirror as I spun past and I stopped.
Reflected back was not that  beautiful, statuesque woman, straight out of Vogue.
This was a withered hag, thin and grey, straggly hair, and toothless face, grinning at me.
“Mistress,” she croaked, a spider crawling from her mouth.

#3tc; #TTC; #pensitivity101

Take Seven – 8th January

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Take Seven 8 January 2021 by Pensitivity101

Words: Add All Basic Being Bit Determined Hidden Knew Lean Lurking Measured More Show Sneer Started There Tin Tired Treat Wobble Work

My effort below

I’m tired of feeling rejected.

The lurking depression, basically hidden but measured by how easily I feel hurt.

It all adds up. No matter how determined I am to show strength, I wobble.

I’m not alone. Many of us feel this desperation; if people only knew.

They say, it is not about you. We don’t treat you any differently.

You look at me, at my cushy world and sneer.

You don’t understand how much energy it takes to overcome the negative self-talk.

At work all you can see is how unreasonable I’m being because I’m tough. My expectations are high, of us all. Not just you.

Bit by bit I need to prove there is more to me than the lean offering I share.

I wear the tin badge of self-appointed sheriff, started so long ago; first line of defence.

Take Seven

Three things challenge #470 – Friendship

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Three Things Challenge #470. Today’s three things are:

LURKING, STARTED, THERE

***

I saw you lurking there, every day as I passed the tube station entrance.

At first, I was nervous. Were you a danger, I wondered?

I became curious and would glance your way a little more each time.

My curiosity gained strength. I made excuses to pass your way.

I’d Benny out for a walk. He was an excellent judge of character.

He loved you immediately. You loved each other. It made me smile.

We began to nod in recognition. Smiling at the friendship.

One day I stopped and said hello.

You shook my hand and I asked, “Do you need anything?”

“A little food, now and then. Friendship.”

Friendship was easy and food was plentiful.

We started a kerbside family, with hotpot from home, occasionally fish and chips from the chipper down the street.

You brought me out of myself, away from my own small worries. You gave me purpose other than work, bills, weight to lose.

Then one day, you had gone. Nobody knew where. I never found out.

Friendship found, then lost. Loneliness threatened.

But I looked up at the sky underneath we shared so many happy times and knew that I would be okay. I could be as lonely or as involved as I chose.

Benny and I had learned awareness and now looked outside ourselves for happiness. (222 words)

***

#3tc; #TTC; #pensitivity101https://wordpress.com/read/blogs/57168971/posts/63039

Three Things Challenge #461

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The three things today are:

BRING, GAVE and CONTRIBUTION

*** *** ***

Bring home the bacon. There’s a designation of duty well established.

I gave, and I gave, and I gave … designation of another sort. Remarked and reflected upon.

With many a maligned partner asking, “what has your contribution been to this relationship?”

If I’m honest, my generational biases could come into play if I were the reader, and not the writer. At first glance. Before further analysis.

I might assume that …

The husband is the bacon bringer

His unappreciated wife, the giver; and that

Either of them could be the whining and unhappy partner. The supplier of the ingredient, or the one cooking said pork.

Whichever is the provider.

I reflect on how easy it is to disenfranchise and discriminate by pigeonholing people, stumbling into an abyss by misuse of language, by interpretation.

Filtered by perception, generation, gender, colour, circumstance. Country of birth.

Through eyes of the child.

Words should bring clarity. They often bewilder. Obfuscate.

Even with the best of intention.

Three Things Challenge

Three Things Challenge #456

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The three things for today are: CLOCK, SNORE, TREE
*****

I was caught by surprise, snoring on the job.

The radar clocked him flying past at 140km/hr.

I woke up fast, flipped the flashers, turned on the siren.

And pulled out of the highway rest area, throwing up gravel as tires grabbed dirt.

He had a significant lead. Was barely visible ahead.

My patrol car was built for the chase, and I was gaining every second.

Then a bang. An explosion really.

And there was smoke, and debris blasted over the bitumen.

Then the mangled car wrapped around the tree.

Three Things Challenge

Three Things Challenge #455

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The challenge is to simply read the prompt and see where your creativity takes you. You can use one, two or all three words in your post, there are no restrictions regarding length, style, or genre apart from keeping it family friendly. You can use the 3TC, #threethingschallenge or TTC as a tag and the logo if you wish. The three things for today are:

CREAK, SOCKET and TISSUE
*****

The Prime Minister stood with head bowed. Tears trickling down her cheeks.

So many weeks without a break, the slightest hint of bad news causing hysterical reactions from the press and people both.

Her eyes were sunk deep into their sockets. You could hear her neck joints creak as she lifted her head and looked out over the crowd.

“I am sorry,” she said. “I am so sorry.”

Obviously no longer able to carry the weight, her shoulders dropped, hair fell over her face and she wiped tears with her jacket sleeve.

“Give her a tissue,” somebody called from the crowd.

A tidal wave of arms passed a starkly white handkerchief from person to person, hand to hand, from far in the back of the auditorium on up to the stage.

An aide reached down and grasped the hanky, turned, and handed it to the lonely, sobbing woman.

“Madam,” he whispered. “Please, take this.”

This kind and human gesture almost brought the country’s leader to her knees, as she gracefully accepted the gift.

She wiped her eyes, her face, her neck and then blew loudly. People laughed.

“We will do better, I promise,” she said and looked out, strong again. “We will persevere.”

She turned to leave the stage with a straight back, nodding to well-wishers and shaking hands.

“There goes a super spreader,” mumbled the camera man.

Three Things Challenge

Three Things Challenge #442

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And the Three Things for today are:

Prepare
Trouble
Rules

Note that my contribution comes from the depths of Christmas bookseller heaven. The most wonderful time of the year for booksellers, as their customers remember how much their loved ones love to read 😁👀

Retail Christmas shopping

You think you’re prepared and then the race is on.

Poach the freshest vege. Pinch the fruit. Press the flesh. Pound the pavement.

Grab that bestseller!

Trouble is brewing for the unwary, retailer and customer both.

The rules of engagement are in place. The customer is always right. Correct?

Only if you’ve raised the consumer from childhood to believe he can run roughshod over the worn‑out clerk, elbow punch the passive fellow shopper and grumble and complain his way from shop, to crumbling shop.

Retail Christmas shopping

Carry good cheer on your shoulder, spread joy wherever you wander.

Good tidings to all, and to all happy shopping.

Remember the magic of the Christmas season, and the reason you’re shopping is about the giving.

Treat yourself and others with kindness, let somebody else in front of you.

Warm someone’s heart, offer charity and celebrate the true meaning of the season.

While snapping up that bargain, grin at your achievement, and look forward to Christmas day and the joy you’ll be spreading.

Three Things Challenge