Happy Christmas to the world! Whether you're Christian or not, we all need the blessing of peace.

#vss365 Christmas memories should be happy ones of love & laughter, but carols bring tears every time. We sink under a barrage of images – a body thinned to bone laboured breath and a long night watch in death's shadow. Xmas is tough enough without Silent Night sung by a treble.

#vss365 Seeing my photo of snow in Canada, my daughter in Ireland said, "Throw yourself backwards and make a snow angel, I'm sure Dan will #jump in and pull you out. It would make a great picture." In 2ft of snow and minus 14 temperatures? I don't think so!

#vss365 From #humble stable to deathly cross He gave only love and a command to love each other. Simple enough, you'd think, yet for 2000 years that message has been distorted, used as an excuse for evil. Christmas is coming - remember what it really means.

#vss365 My wish this Christmas for my son and his children - that as time fades their grief to gentler thoughts, the pain of losing her will be replaced by #gratitude for the love she gave.

#vss365 I'm over 80, so of course I've done things i #regret The worst of which are those my kids Will ne'er let me forget.

#vss365 On this, my son-in-law's birthday, I #recall the morning when, Nipping to the bathroom, I encountered this strange man Standing on the landing Outside my daughter's room - He was dressed for work,while I Had not even a stitch on!

#vss365 Grieving for my son trying to create Christmas for his children - their mother only ashes and a #memory.

#vss365 I never thought the sight of such beautiful snow could become ##monotonous but it's keeping my dodgy hip confined to the house.

#vss365 I have come to give comfort but for the loss of a young wife and mother a grandmother is no #consolation

An unplanned trip to Canada - snow is pretty when viewed through a window, but I'm stir-crazy.

Cold this morning -16c!

My heart is too full to write any #vss365 stories right now. My beautiful daughter-in-law Julia died yesterday, in Canada, leaving my youngest son to bring up their two little girls alone.

#vss365 My December wish - that #chivalrous Fate stay his hand so that this coming feast will not forever hold the memory of her death.

#FromOneLine #vss365 #aphotic We should have stopped ealier, but he insisted the car would make it through. Even when the water soaked our feet he drove on. Then the engine died, the night is black as sin, & we're starting to float. We're doomed. I always knew his stubbornness would kill us.

#vss365 so suave he dates himself #suave

#vss365 Handsome, #suave & urbane, he slid effortlessly into our group, charming us with tales of foreign travel. We wondered if they were all true. Then he phoned home. 'Hello Muther'. Thick Yorkshire accent. The man was real after all.

#vss365 Christmas is approaching In my view much too fast With all the sad reminders Of celebrations past And loved ones who were not aware That it would be their #last.

To my #vss365 friends - which of these represents you? Or doesn't Christmas #matter?

What we #draw up in our minds #matters. If each of us could find the common ground and become #united in a way that’ll #illuminate truth from the lies our ancestors told us, it’d be #huge toward world peace. Never stop trying to make the magic come true. #vss365 #2WordPrompt #Whistpr #vssmagic

#vss365 The big countries' aggression may lead to our world's end but in the mayhem all that #matter are family and friends.

#vss365 There are all kinds of quack cures for a filthy cold, but over the years I have #learned to ignore them all. Plenty of fluids, regular doses of Beechams, and rest. Which is why I am staying in bed - just for the good of my #health.

#fromoneline #vss365 I didn't write this, did I? was my first thought. On #reflection, it's not bad! Perhaps it's time to sort my jottings into order, so when my brain is stuck searching for inspiration I've the beginnings of a book.

#vss365 #WritingCommunity When the joints all creak And your muscles ache And a nice long walk You can no longer take. When the kids don't phone Even just to check That you're still alive, You think 'Why the heck Am I even here? Do I matter at all? Am I #relevant now? Life begins to pall.

#vss365 My attention span is limited So to keep my old hands movable I stick to week-long projects So the results are #achievable - And this is the best I can write today I have to cook a cottage pie.

Rewarding a dictator-aggressor always leads to another war. One that is usually even worse.

#vss365 #measurable Only God knows the days I have left - to me they are #immeasurable so I live each day as if I am immortal. If I knew this was my last day I would spend it saying over and over to my children - I love you.

#vss365 #WritingCommunity We'll have to take #action, they said, but nobody was prepared to be #specific. When the body was discovered, every single one of them blamed the others, and the police couldn't pin it on anyone. Murder by committee.

#vss365 Wish I'd been told in my youth that choosing one #option over another can be irreversible - I might have hesitated. Perhaps.

Mum would have been 101 today. Miss her a lot. Happy birthday Mum xx

#vss365 #WritingCommunity What do you want to get from life? I was asked when in my teens. To be happy as someone's wife I'd say, like every young girl's dream. But later, when I was grown and wed, and faced with #reality my heart no longer ruled my head and I found I was happier free.

#vss365 My #goals have shrunk As the years increase I'll make do with friends And a world at peace.

#vss365 Welcome Sheila @LoveHealthEd our new host! Daughter & g/daughter coming for lunch, Roast chicken, as always, required - Must take #issue with Millie For being so silly Coz the same meal each week makes me tired.

#vss365 #transport a song I loved in my teenage years! www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yHr...

Seeds drop and grow The transport A bird or perhaps a four footed thing Hooked for a free ride to migration How can they not have brains? Roots speak, dig, and hold together Chemical warfare in ultraviolet Symbiote in deed I, the illiterate Am amazed #vss365

Those inhabiting this dystopia must have some distraction, some social, chemical, technological ticket to #transport them out of the present moment because this very moment is the only place where the dystopia can be dismantled. #vss365 #poetry

Cheers to the storytellers, the yarn-spinners, the tale-weavers, those who #transport us into elsewhere and otherwhen. We are grateful trespassers in gardens they planted specifically for our wandering. They counterfeit reality better than reality manages, then share their forgeries freely. #vss365

these words got me writing on contraband #desire and an old piece in the comments #unbearable #Emoetry @fafo-poets-society.bsky.social @mwplovesmusic.bsky.social #transport @youngliz.bsky.social #vss365 @vss365hq.bsky.social #nix @ignorantfairy.bsky.social #BlueSkyRelay @blueskyrelay.bsky.social

For whoever needs this. *Yelling fuck is mandatory. It helps. It’s science.

#poetry #science #vss365

Scalpel. Suction. Sternal Saw. Finding true love is not an exact #science. Heartache, broken hearts, hearts with holes —I fix them all. But as soon as I open this man's chest cavity, I see the problem. No heart at all. A politician. Sew him up. All that money can keep him company. #vss365

#vss365 #prompt #Nov15 Good morning, writers! From tomorrow your host will be the lovely & healthy Sheila @lovehealthed.bsky.social who will post at 8am GMT. Thank you all; it's been great apart from the early mornings! My final word is #transport - very apt as I trundle off into the sunset.

The imperative study of #science Has been stymied by Trump's vile defiance: Experts fired, grants blocked, As he goes off half-cocked To extort his foul brand of compliance. #vss365 #Science #Research #Health #Medicine #Poetry #News #Resist #Trump #USPOL #USPolitics #Politics #RFKJr #Limericks

If there was a science for the space between my worry and wonder I'd study with fervor. If there was a water to hydrate the heart and soften the spirit I'd drink 'til I drowned. If there was a doorway connecting our minds I'd never cross over a coward at best. #vss365 #poetry #writingagain

"Why are you wasting your time with those #science experiments?" asked the #rich man. "To make the world better," I said. "For whom?" he asked. "But who benefits from all your wealth?" "What a ridiculous question." "Precisely," I said. #vss365 #vssdaily #amwriting

They talk about #science like it's somewhere between god and a fairytale. The walls get higher and the locks get heavier and we disappear more every day. My body is a bountiful harvest they tell me, my blood an elixir, and I try to remember what it felt like to have a name. 🏷️ #vss365 (science)

The Universe seeded, our progenitors returned home to observe the progress of their creations from afar. The #science behind survival and progress, quickly turned into the means of death and destruction. The creators, reluctant Frankensteins, looked on in horror at their monster, Man. #vss365

She gave up the science, questioning the magic. She hoarded words until she became rich in stories. Occasionally she would benevolently hand out poems, tipping words into an outstretched mind. Myths that grew in her thoughts like moss, logic packed away and forgotten. #vssdaily rich #vss365 science

Priorities.

#vss365 Sci-fly The science books say things fall, but I’ve been hovering for months, like a carnivalled balloon that forgot its child. Gravity sh- rugs, leaves me d ri ft ing. That’s the trouble with theories: they don’t account for exhausted souls and leaking lives. #science