General

The 40 years war was fought between the years 1385-1424 and this was a military conflict fought between the Burmese-speaking Kingdom of Ava and the Mon-speaking Kingdom of Hanthawaddy Pegu.  Forget ‘nine months’, the typical pregnancy actually lasts 40 weeks!  A full-time work week is 40 hours.  Ali Baba had to outwit 40 thieves in the classic tale, Arabian Nights.  40 is widely considered entry into middle age.  It took chemists 40 attempts to develop the magical spray known as WD-40.  It takes Venus 40 years to cross our sky and return to its starting point.  The number 40 is a pentagonal pyramidal number.  Russian folklore says that ghosts hang around for 40 days after death.  The word ‘forty’ is the only number in the English language that is in alphabetical order when spelled out.  According to an ancient proverb, “to understand a people, you must live among them…

Lent has 40 days. So we were told.

I was brought up in a very Catholic family, Mass every Sunday, no meat on Fridays and Lent we were told were days of fast and abstinence.

Each year it was a matter of what are you giving up for Lent. Chocolate was a popular one. We used to receive these little moneyboxes called Project Compassion into which we placed all the small change we generated throughout the Lenten period.

Lent finished with Easter. I never liked Easter much as it was a series of Church goings that drove me crazy. The Sunday before Easter was Palm Sunday. This necessitated the reading of the passion of Christ, which was long, and you had to stand for it.

The following Thursday was Holy Thursday, an evening Mass where the priest washed the feet of twelve parishioners as at the Last Supper.

Friday was…

there
are
no more
dreams on the
wrong side of forty
just bitter realizations

In response to:Reena’s Exploration Challenge #Week 40

It was like a hand from the grave would reach out and grab me, and it took all my will power to free myself once again.

This was how it felt during the first weeks of separation from my marriage.

Every trick in the book was used to lure me back into a marriage that had long failed.

There were two sets of forces, my ex and my younger children. The younger children were at an age where they wanted a family like everyone else’s. My younger daughter made that plain to me at the time.

My older children knew the situation well, they had watched me suffer psychological and physical torment and knew I had to get out of that environment.

For my ex it was the shame of publicly acknowledging the failure of the marriage. She wanted respectability; she wanted our community to know it was my entire…

Reena’s Exploration Challenge #Week 39

Challenge

This week, I give you a poem, and you write a piece in any format based on that thought process. Go against the flow, if that is what you genuinely feel, and make your point.

( Me and my inflated ego) 

Sometimes in the front of me       

Sometimes it was behind 

sometimes on the left       

Sometimes on the right 

Sometimes you are within me 

And sometimes stand outside 

I thought I was bigger and better           

Far superior and tall 

And you are mere my shadow           

Destined just to follow me  

But what you did to me             

Was fair not at all 

treachery one  may call 

As I was no more alive       

and you were doing jive

~ Indira 

Below in response to Kate’s request is a list of the prompts I frequent.

Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie

The links are to the most recent prompts: The times are Australian time when I receive them.

Sunday:Sunday Writing Prompt

https://mindlovemiserysmenagerie.wordpress.com/2018/05/27/sunday-writing-prompt-select-a-heading/

This prompt can range from the type shown or it can be based on an image, or a statement, it varies from week to week. There no word limits and you can use any form you like, poetry or prose.

Monday: Wordle

https://mindlovemiserysmenagerie.wordpress.com/2018/05/28/wordle-198-wordle-mlmm-amwriting/

This is a great challenge as there are twelve words or phrases and you are invited to compose a story or poem using ten of the words. There are no word limits.

Tuesday:Photo Challenge

https://mindlovemiserysmenagerie.wordpress.com/2018/05/29/photo-challenge-216/

Each Tuesday a new image is presented for you to write a story or poem to. No word limit.

Wednesday: Heeding Haiku With Chèvrefeuille

For all haiku lovers this challenge has a…