Category: Faith

Two Things Thursday #8

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1. Doing Jewish: A Story From Ghana screenshot directly from my TV
2. A lovely card from a dear friend. Photo Credit: Tremaine L. Loadholt

1. Doing Jewish: A Story From Ghana, is a documentary about filmmaker, Gabrielle Zilkha making the trek to Ghana to learn more about Ghanaians practicing Judaism and learning, loving, living, and letting others know about their faith in Africa (specifically Ghana, Uganda, Zimbabwe, with a prominent focus on Africans in a small village called Sefwi Wiawso, Ghana).

I watched the documentary on Tuesday, February 27, 2024, early in the morning. I found it to be interesting and informative. In all honesty, I needed this particular movie at that particular time.

Here is a brief synopsis of it:

A tiny community in rural Ghana recently discovered that the religion they have been practicing for centuries is Judaism. Filmmaker Gabrielle Zilkha explores their story from isolation to global connection and the challenges and rewards they face along the way.

IMDB, 2016

2. A lovely card from a dear friend. This beautifully multi-colored card arrived in my mailbox on the same day. Again, I needed this. It seemed like things popped up or occurred on Tuesday when I was NOT feeling like myself at all, and I had spiraled into a complete downward unwelcome place.

The Lord knows when to send help. He knows when you need it most. And on Tuesday, I had to be pulled out from a dark place to which I had landed.

I am grateful for good movies, great friends, and momentary interactions with darkness . . . it reminds me just how important love and light is.

Lily and the Valley

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Flash Fiction

Photo by Alex Kinkate on Pexels.com

Lily spent fifty years scaling a mountain that held no form of life on it. Her quest, given at the time of her birth, was to find Valley and make a home there.

But how would she do this if the mountain that held no form of life on it spun continuously in the opposite direction of where she needed to be?

A revolving door? A nightmare? A terror? A thing no one wants around?

She needed to rid herself of this mountain and soon.

Tree and Sun tiptoed into her line of sight. Moon and Air brought their heaviest armor. Stars and Ocean swirled into the Air and channeled Tsunami. Monsoon held Highway’s hand.

A reunion took place no one envisioned.

Everyone gathered at the bottom of the mountain and raced to the top of it for Lily. They brought life to a place that had never seen life before. And soon, Mountain opened its eyes, breathed in the things circling around it, and panted ceaselessly.

It was alive!

And knowing this, Mountain cracked its body, shifted twists and turns, and knocked edges of rock off its back, creating a path for Lily. Swerving at the speed of sound, Lily found her way to Valley and settled into its embrace. She looked toward Mountain’s direction and noticed every form of life exited to their own assignments; leaving Mountain alone again.

“Valley, all it needed was life.”

“So life, it will have.”

Valley stomped her feet and whispered to everyone simultaneously, “Send tiny pieces of you to Mountain. Give it some of your life.”

And as each form of life did as they had been ordered, Valley and Lily offered up tiny pieces of themselves, too.

Mountain seized from the outpouring of love and cried tears of joy. Moments later; grass grew, lilies sprang up at every turn, rain poured in patchy spots, trees shot up from the ground, and life began living in a place that needed it most.

Lily and Valley stood in awe of their magic and inhaled the goodness around them.

Their mission had been accomplished.