Think about past experiences that you didn’t exactly enjoy. Look back at those experiences and view them as part of your lifetime growth seminar. Keep learning new lessons and gain new strengths.
-from Rabbi Zelig Pliskin’s book “Happiness”,p.118
The Night of the Succubus
© Sue Vincent
Trigger Warning: This story is at least PG-13 with a little R thrown in (I tried to be as circumspect as possible and still retain the overall imagery of the story), so if you’re offended by sensual language with a touch of horror, you might want to stop reading now.
Lilith was always the first to arrive, but as the great mother, she was responsible for preparing the holy site for the others.
“Mother!” Naamah ran into the clearing, and with a gazelle-like leap to clear a fallen log, she fell into Lilith’s arms. If mother and daughter were human, their embrace would appear lewd and obscene, their hands and tongues sliding sensually over each others supple, lightly clad bodies, but for the most ancient of demons, this was a standard greeting, especially after being parted for an entire year (though at their age, a year wasn’t considered very long at all).
They parted as Rahab and Vashti arrived. Then Shelomit, Helah, and Jezebel joined them. As the sun hung low on the western horizon, the others came, and after engaging in the same ritual greeting, which stopped short of becoming a frenzied orgy (for that was yet to come), the hundreds gathered in several concentric circles around the tall, verdant phallic idol.
Quoting: Prepare for the Best
The best time to mentally prepare yourself for times of adversity is when things are going well and you are in a resourceful state. Adversity is a challenge that enables you to develop attributes that wouldn’t be developed in easier times. Keep building up the inner resources that will enable you to cope well with difficulties. If you are in the middle of a difficulty right now, then right now is the best time to build up those resources. You won’t have to wait and see if the inner resources you need are becoming a part of you, you will see results right away.
Develop courage and confidence. Develop persistence and resilience. Develop optimism and hope. How can you develop these qualities? Visualize yourself mastering them. See, hear, and feel yourself being confident and courageous. See, hear, and feel yourself persisting and bouncing back. Right now feel an inner sense of optimism that you will cope well with difficulties. And if a difficulty arises that you don’t cope with as well as you wished, learn from the experience to cope better next time.
-from Rabbi Zelig Pliskin’s “Happiness”,p.196-7
The Eye
© Roger Bultot
I ran into the building to get away from the angry mob of protestors outside.
What is this place? The middle of the room is contained in a sort of marble circle. Who is that by those torches?
“Oh good, you’re here.”
He’s African-American, bald, and I’ve never seen him before in my life.
“Hurry. There isn’t much time.”
“Time for what?”
“For you to go through the eye and restore the balance. The world is terribly divided, and only you can manipulate reality.”
“Who am I?” Then I felt myself lifted up toward the glass oval in the ceiling.
I wrote this for the Rochelle Wisoff-Fields writing challenge. The idea is to use the image above as the prompt for crafting a piece of flash fiction no more than 100 words long. My word count is 100.
I’d love to have figured out where this photo was taken, but that would have required a lot of work, and I’m short on time lately. The oval-shaped window in the ceiling reminds me of the large window in comic book character Doctor Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum. Last night, I read a story about a man with amnesia who turned out to be an alien, and I have a tendency to write a lot of stories featuring a Messiah-like figure. Put all that together, and you have the tale I just wrote.
To read other stories based on the prompt, visit InLinkz.com.
Quoting: Do Your Best
Our goal should be to keep improving ourselves, rather than “being the best.”
Someone who feels the need to be “the best” should ask himself, “Why do I really have to be better than others? What is so awful if someone else is better than me in any given area?”
People who feel the need to be “the best” often suffer much anxiety. They frequently tell themselves, “If I am not the best, then I am a failure. I am nothing.”
There is no basis for this. In ultimate terms, no human can really say who is best. Comparing yourself to anyone else is arbitrary — so why cause yourself misery by doing so?
-from Rabbi Zelig Pliskin’s “Gateway to Happiness,” p.130
If you’re a regular reader here, you have probably noticed that my productivity has fallen off lately. I’ve been crazy busy, both at my day job and at home, so haven’t had the bandwidth to do much (if any) writing. I hope this changes soon.
Quoting: See the Good in Your Past
Image: ABC.net.au / Rocky Roe
When you look at your past, focus on the things you have to be thankful for.
Sources: see Rabbi Eliezer Zev Luft; Tnuas Hamussar, vol.5, p.302; Rabbi Zelig Pliskin’s Gateway to Happiness, p.37
Sunday Afternoon, a Little Girl, a Tree, and Dragons
I was spending time drawing with my three-year-old granddaughter, and while she was scribbling on her piece of paper, I borrowed another she’d lightly worked on and added a few things.
I can see all the colors of autumn out my back window, so naturally, I started with a tree. Then, because I read one of my dragon stories to my nine-year-old grandson earlier, I had to add a few of them.
Enjoy.
© James Pyles
I May Not Know Art But I Know What I Like
Image credit: Fandango
“So, what’s with the crap?” Tammy waved her arm at the unlikely collection of two beat up rocking chairs and a dead tree.
“It’s art, I guess.” Her companion Ryan scratched his head in puzzlement.
“We had to pay to get in and see this? And look at the price. Who’d pay $800.00 for this?”
“Come on, hun. Jay’s a nice guy, and we said we’d support his debut here at the art museum.” Then he grabbed her arm. “Hush. Here he comes.”
“Ryan! Tammy!” The young man dressed in jeans, a t-shirt, and a tan sports jacket approached holding out his hand. “I’m glad you could make it.”
They each shook hands with the broadly grinning artist.
“What do you think?” He waited expectantly.
“Well, it’s interesting,” Ryan said, trying to look contemplative.
“Yes, that’s what it is. Interesting.” Tammy hoped she could bluff her way through the conversation.
“Oh, come now. You know it’s just a bunch of junk thrown together, but it’s what the public likes.”
The couple both stared at their neighbor like he’d suddenly turned green.
“Excuse me, Mr. Fellows?” One of the exhibit managers approached Jay. “A gentlemen says he wishes to purchase your work.”
I wrote this for the Sunday Photo Fiction challenge of October 21, 2018. The idea is to use the image above as the prompt for crafting a piece of flash fiction no more than 200 words long. My word count is 200.
I didn’t want to write about an art exhibit, but the surroundings clearly indicate that’s what this is. Hopefully, I managed to put a sufficient spin on the topic.
To read other stories based on the prompt, visit InLinkz.com.
Quoting: Avoid Using Guilt to Justify Inaction
Feeling guilty is the lazy way of reacting. A guilty person resigns himself to keeping his faults and does not try to take actions to improve.
Don’t use guilt feelings to justify laziness and procrastination. If a person tends to think in terms of guilt, when he hears an idea he will say to himself, “How awful it is that I’m not following that idea.”
It is more productive to keep focus on what you can do to implement the principle or concept.
-from Rabbi Zelig Pliskin’s “Gateway to Happiness,” p.222
The New Dragon Saga: Captive
Found at fr.ulule.com
The doorbell rang again.
“Just a minute.”
The seventeen-year-old boy went to the front door, and looking through the peep-hole, saw a mail carrier holding a package. Turning the deadbolt, he opened the door, and then, in a breathtaking fashion, his world ceased to exist.
“Landon.” His master’s voice came from behind him. He turned, and the full ten-meter length of the great golden dragon’s spectral image rushed through the house like a frigid wind, chilling the boy’s flesh as the serpent passed through his body and into the brilliant void outside the front door.
“Buddy!” He had to scream now to be heard above the sudden gale which carried him away after the dragon, who was already receding into the distance.
“Help me, Landon.” The dragon’s voice was a soft, still whisper he could barely hear within the roar of an arctic-cold hurricane, and then it was gone.
Chapter 6: Thus did the great golden dragon Xendrizdelian Nygardia Chyz, Shadow Master, Lord of Abibligon, of the Order of Zin become unmade, being swiftly ushered down the vortex of icy white mist at an impossible velocity. As he helplessly fell into an unknown distance, his body shrank, not in the manner of merely becoming smaller, but becoming younger, less developed, adolescent, and then younger still. And while his form regressed, so did his mind, his memories, his emotions, his spirit.
Then he was alone in the darkness, in the space between spaces and he was terrified. He was after him, a mighty ruler, a relentless king. Xian, King of the Shadow Dragons. The tiny Xen was exhausted, defenseless. One more strike by the King and he would be dead. Only one thing left to do. It was forbidden, but his only haven now was the human world. If he could open a portal in time.
The diminutive dragon, now about the size of a small collie, was just crossing the threshold into the realm of the one reality no dragon was ever to witness, when a bolt of blood-red energy smashed into him. He cried out in fiery anguish as his right wing was shattered, and he passed out while plummeting downward into the night sky.
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