Photo taken by author’s grandson P

My Grandchildren’s Prompts

Got me out of my Medium writing slump!

I have been on a Medium writing slump for over a week or two. Each time I sit down to write, my grief at the violence and continued bombing in Palestine paralyzes me; my shock at the hypocrisy of the West and silence of the East shocks me. I say “What’s the point of writing?” The world is so screwed up. Even the International Court of Justice’s agreement that genocide is taking place has not slowed down the bombing raids on unarmed civilians and their whole livelihood and infrastructure. Decent human beings are beat by police if they march non-violently for peace and cease-fire. What happened to our world?

Then as if like a reminder from the heavens, my grandchildren visited me yesterday. It was such a wonderful visit after 2 months since I have been handicapped, and they made the effort despite their own challenges that very same day! And they brought a gift for me- a box of words on magnetic tiles to make poems on your fridge! What a sweet idea. To top it off, they left me their creation before they left for their own home (photo above). As I started reading them, I noticed how they awakened in me the desire to rise above, to reach for the sublime and the beautiful that still exists in the world, and how each of their creations will be a prompt for my writing for weeks to come! This is Part I of this series…