5 minute Friday: on the color red
It’s 5 minute Friday: write for 5 minutes flat and straight, no going back and editing, just write. It’s good exercise!
I have been excited all week for this Friday’s prompt. I came to the site where 5 minute Friday started, and saw the word: RED.
Maybe she meant to say: read, ready…really, just red? Oh, she’s being tricky.
This should be 55 minute Friday because I spent the last hour thinking about red. What is red? Why do I want to write about red?
Ready, set, go:
It came to me then, when I saw the card on the coffee table. Red is the color of her hair, long and luxe, unbelievably beautiful and red. The card is from her and her mama, visitors yesterday, on the day when the sky was gray and the lightening and thunder made this old house tremble. There are scratch and sniff stickers inside it. Her long red hair was strewn across the shared sheepskin, while Florence barely sports blonde curls. This red, this wheat, these miracles.
And it took my breath away. All of it, the moment when I met another, when I saw the same face of love in a child, blue eyes so soft and bright.
She is Charlie and her little spirit left an imprint on this house, a symphony of sounds and colours and delight. Charlie also has Spinal Muscular Atrophy type 1 and lives in the same city as us. She is 4 years old. And in this same city, her parents received the same terrible diagnosis, in the same hospital, the same grim faces telling her the facts. She wasn’t expected to live for more than a few months. Thoughts have changed since then and each child is just so different, we never know what the future will hold, which is a blessing and a curse. There is something about these children that causes ones heart to expand, to brim, the red of it beating harder and faster for love. It’s unexplainable.
As their parents, we are never the same. These valleys shape us. We grow stronger as they grow weaker, this is the dance, this is the struggle.
These are the the gifts that love made, these are the faces that change the world.
Hi I’m Heather! Please email me when you get a chance, I have a question about your blog! Heather.vonstjames(at)gmail.com Thanks!!
I love the photo of these two sweet angels sharing the animal in their hands together Especially love that the reminder that we do not walk alone xo
What a sweet story, and a sweet, innocent friendship. Thank you for sharing and may you continually find God’s strength holding you. (Sharon, via 5MF, and aunt to a sweet little boy with MTM)
Thanks for visiting! Yes, their friendship is the sweetest thing. xo
Michaela, your words always touch my soul.
Thank you and know that I continue to light candles for you and baby Flo.
I appreciate you lighting candles on her behalf. That’s very special.
Michaela, I loved this: “These are the the gifts that love made, these are the faces that change the world.” True of EVERY child God has made. Thank you for sharing your faith and your hope! (Visiting from FMF today…)
Thanks for visiting Bethany and for taking time to comment and say hello. I’m coming your way now!
OMGosh Michaela!! The most beautiful photo ever!! Tow precious little angels. So she is 4 years old…ya….what do doctors really know eh?? We continue to pray for Flo. At 6 am this morning as I lay grogged still from last nights meds given to me at the ER, Paul lay down beside me, and as he prayed for me, our kids, and grandson, he prayed for Flo!WE believe in miracles!! Thanks for the touching story as well. So encouraging!!
Oh I’m so sorry to hear you we’re in the ER. That’s terrible Debbie. Are you alright? And yet in the midst you were praying for my girl. Well, that’s a gift.
Beautiful, touching and radiant with love. Dear post, Michaela.
This is the first time I am visiting your website and I am just so moved by your optimism and your way with words. Thank you for sharing your story with the world. You have a beautiful daughter. God is using her little life to make such a huge difference. Stay strong <3
well thank you for stopping by, and taking the time to write. The optimism isn’t me, it’s grace, and it’s God. 🙂
“These are the the gifts that love made, these are the faces that change the world.” And as Florence’s mother, Michaela, Love has gifted you with the ability to express with words what seems otherwise, inexplicable. Glory to God.
thank you for your very kind compliment. it means a lot.
So beautiful!!
Sweet picture; precious story. Thank you.
What beautiful words- and beautiful girls! It never ceases to amaze me, that God brings us together with people we never would have met, but for shared circumstances. What a wonderful reminder that we are never alone. I’m your FMF neighbor today- thanks for sharing!
Thanks for reading and commenting. Glad we are neighbours!
Simply Beautiful. Thank you for sharing this today.
You are masterful at turning a sow’s ear into a silk purse! May you continue to be blessed with optimisim and surrounded with his love….
You are a pretty great writer yourself 🙂