Cynthia A. Morgan's Blog, page 173

Can you drink the cup?

Can you drink the cup?  The mother of the sons of Zebedee makes a request of Christ, “Promise that these two sons of mine will sit on your right and left in your kingdom.”  Christ sets the overzealous mother and her sons straight, “You do not know what you are asking.”

They were asking for things along the lines of accomplishment without hard work, freedom without responsibility, all the gifts and grace that God has to offer without any of the suffering of the human condition.  Can you drink of the cup, of the cup of your own life?

The hectic pace of this life leaves little time for reflection.  It is an effort to put our phones away and pay attention.  Being fully present is in danger of being fully extinct.  Can you drink the cup?

It took me a long time to be willing to look at the cup of my own life.  Growing up in the presence of alcoholism left me anxious and unwilling to discuss what I had lived through.  Little did I know that others endured the same or worse.  I lived with that for far too long.

It took a lot of counseling in addition to God’s ability to heal for me to arrive where I am today.  Much healthier, but still reluctant to trust.  That is my cup.  No shame in the things that were beyond my control.  To be able to see that the events that take part in each of our lives is God’s way of molding and shaping us, even when those things are painful and don’t make any sense.

Christ’s cup was so painful that he asked if it could pass.  All the ugliness and sin the world has to offer.  Christ submitted to his Father’s will, we should do the same.

 

Pastor Shawn, Seymour UMC

Author of Incomplete

Filed under: Guest Bloggers on BnV, Poetry Tagged: blog, Blogging, christianity, Faith, Humanity, Inspiration, life, Reflections, relationships, Religion, Truth, Writing

The Song of the Leaves – #Poetry of the #NaturalWorld

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The Song of the Leaves

Whispers in soft Suspirations

Exhalations

Delicately deciduous

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Everlastingly evergreen

Proud pine Pointing Ever

To the Heart of Softly Spoken Shades

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Lingering shadow of Verdant Blush

Tantric Sighs

Expansive and Lush

As each one Sings

In an Unspoken haze

Lilting Enchantment of Elder Days.

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~Morgan~

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Beautiful photographs found on Pinterest. Credit Gratefully Acknowledged to the Original Photographers. Thank You~

Filed under: Poetry Tagged: Beautiful Photographs, BnV, BooknVolume, Forests, Natural World, Nature, Poem, poetry, Poetry Blog, trees, ~Morgan~

Intensity – #DailyHaikuChallenge

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Bright Intensity

Brandishing delicate Poise

Fire while Smiling

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To take part in the Daily Haiku Challenge see  The Original Post from Day One

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Day 287 / 365

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~Morgan~

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Beautiful Photograph found on Pinterest.  Credit Gratefully Acknowledged to the original photographer.  Thank You~

Filed under: Daily Haiku Challenge Tagged: Beautiful Photographs, Belive in Yourself, BnV, BooknVolume, Haiku Challenge, Haiku Writing, Inspiration, Nature, Poem, poetry, Poetry Blog, Self confidence, ~Morgan~

Time Spilling – #DailyHaikuChallenge

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Time Trickling slow

Avenue of Yesterday

Spilling into now

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To take part in the Daily Haiku Challenge see  The Original Post from Day One

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Day 286 / 365

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~Morgan~

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Beautiful Photograph found on Pinterest.  Credit Gratefully Acknowledged to the original photographer.  Thank You~

Filed under: Daily Haiku Challenge Tagged: Beautiful Photographs, BnV, BooknVolume, Haiku Writing, Harmony, Nature, Poem, poetry, Poetry Blog, spirituality, time, Yesterday, ~Morgan~

Singing – #Alliteration #Poetry

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Singing

In the Sweetened Silence,

The sugar-sweet Serenade swam

In the sea of our Serenity,

Sighing.

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~Morgan~

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Beautiful Photography by Sam Tang

Filed under: Poetry Tagged: Alliteration, Beautiful Photographs, Beauty, BnV, BooknVolume, Harmony, Meditation, Nature, Poem, poetry, Poetry Blog, Silence, ~Morgan~

#FridayFantasy – Dangerous Game – #BookTeaser

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Behind them, where the portal exposed by the Great Gate’s falling melded two opposing realms into one, the shadows beneath the mountain heaved and hissed with the threatening vocalizations of the Reviled.

Crimson stained arrows shot from the darkness, seeking any who might be unfortunate enough to find themselves in their trajectory, yet these tactics could be little more than intimidation; a warning of the conflict to come when the Light diminished.  The Liberators knew this and stood on either side of the yawning portal, making their presence known by creating a game out of knocking aside with their swords as many arrows as they could and by returning the insidious calls from the presently thwarted Demonfey.  Tauntingly, they issued brash invitations for the Cursed Ones to come forth; fully cognizant of the fact that they could not bear the brilliant Light filling the clearing, yet jeering at their cowardice.

“It is a treacherous game we play.”  Evondair noted as he stood beside Reydan, both malefey wordlessly observing the derisive bantering going on while standing over their fallen comrade in the silently descending flurries that had begun falling.

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Discover more about Dark Fey here

~Morgan~

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Beautiful Ice Cave Photograph found on Pinterest.  Credit Gratefully Acknowledged to the Original Photographer.  Thank You!

Filed under: Dark Fey, Friday FeyDay / Fantasy Tagged: BnV, Book Teaser, BooknVolume, Chapter Excerpt, Darkness, Epic Fantasy, Fairy Realm, Fantasy, Fey, Free Preview, Free Read, ~Morgan~

#FridayFantasy – Unspoken – #EpicFantasy #Short

 

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The slurking emptiness of the portal spiraled in confounding directions, blackness folding upon darkness, disorientating and robbing him of every sense. Silence filled his hearing, emptiness touched his hands, and piercing blackness robbed his sight as he forced himself to step through the numbing cold nothingness.  Three steps, Gairynzvl had told him; three steps and he would be through the portal, but in the darkness where he lost all perception, including that of his own body, he could not be sure how many steps he had taken and the slowly turning abyss offered no perspective.  Wholly uncertain, Evondair took another step.

The scrunch of gravel beneath his boots reoriented his senses as he took a final step and found himself standing on a dusty, barren track of greyish gravel surrounded by jagged outcroppings of bare rock.  A fetid stench hung upon the thin air and leaching downward from a colourless sky, sooty rain in the form of a heavy mist shrouded everything.   As the remaining Liberators crossed into the Uunglarda, Evondair moved away from the portal and gazed around curiously; yet even as he sought to familiarize himself with the empty wasteland stretching away before him in both directions and ignore the malodorous stench that made him snort in disgust more than once, he reached out through his exceptional gift of discernment.

The action was instinctual; a means of understanding his surroundings and those within it, but opening his mind to the darkness of the Uunglarda was not only an ill-conceived idea, but a thoroughly dangerous endeavor and he instantly regretted it.  With the force of a rushing tide, desperate loneliness and unremitting anguish poured into his being, overwhelming him so completely that he raised his hands to cover his eyes and doubled over with physical pain.  Memories as scathing as a lashing torment serrated through his thoughts; sadistic brutality and remorseless cruelty that drew a profound groan from behind his clenched teeth before the irrepressible tears of more souls than he could number pressed into him like a thousand blades.

He did not say a word, in truth he could not, but as the waves of despair and suffering sought to drag him into the colourless shadows and ensnare him, he fought to withdraw his discernment from the darkness even as it grasped and clawed at his mind like a ravaging monster.  He could have screamed; he could have cried bitter tears; he could have cursed repeatedly in fluent Dlalth as the comprehension of the dark language of the Reviled filled his mind as clearly as his own did, but he did none of these things. As the deluge of misery wrenched at his mind and heart and the dejectedness of the lost Fey of the Light tore at his sanity, he centered his thoughts on the only thing in all of existence that was capable of defeating the darkness.  Filling his mind’s eye with an image of bright, clear, sparkling Light, he focused his attention on the wails and screams shattering his thoughts and answered their cries for mercy with the strongest weapon at his disposal.

Unspoken, yet heard as clearly as thunder rolling across the scorched heavens, the compassionate love that filled his entire spirit reached outward benevolently, silencing the calamitous uproar as a breathless pause stretched across the gloom.

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Discover more about Dark Fey here

~Morgan~

 

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Image found on Pinterest.  Credit Gratefully Acknowledged to the original Photographer. Thank You~

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Filed under: Dark Fey, Friday FeyDay / Fantasy Tagged: BnV, Book Excerpt, BooknVolume, Epic Fantasy, Fantasy, Fantasy Characters, Fantasy Realm, Free Preview, Kindle Books, Teaser, ~Morgan~

#FridayFantasy – Crimson Glitters – #FlashFiction #Fantasy #Preview

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Crimson glitters scattered darkness into the night; fire and flame cascading through the silence.  The quiet environs of forest would never be the same.  Not after He had been there, shaking his hatred outward, spreading abhorrence and cruelty like seeds being sown into fertile soil; like sparks scattering from a raging flame.

They stood in mute horror, watching the conflagration as it stretched outward from his hands, crimson glitters of malevolence reaching into their tranquility, seeking only devastation.

Yet one stood against the infiltration; deep viridian staring boldly into the scarlet haze, wielding a magic Evil could never comprehend.

Forgiveness.

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A 100-Word Preview of Dark Fey:  Breaking Into the Light, book three of the Dark Fey Trilogy.

Discover more about Dark Fey here

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Join Friday Fictioneers by writing a 100-word flash fiction story based on the image

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~Morgan~

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Beautiful photograph by:  Vijaya Sundaram

 

 

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Filed under: Dark Fey, Flash Fiction and Shorts Tagged: 100 Word Stories, Best Fantasy Books, BnV, Book Teaser, BooknVolume, Dark Fey, Epic Fantasy, Fantasy, Fantasy Realm, Flash fiction, Friday Fictioneers, ~Morgan~

#FridayFantasy – Crimson – #Fantasy #Preview

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Turning the shadowy corner, she thought to press on, in spite of the many Legionnaires filling the encampment; crowding round its many sulfur braziers with faces half-covered to protect themselves from the malodorous fumes while hoping to extract some measure of warmth from the ineffectual fires.  Disguised beneath the veil of bent light she had cast round herself in order to traverse the dangerous avenues of the Uunglarda unseen, Ilys stepped onward lightly without a sound or any indication of her presence; yet as she came to the end of the street, where a black tent marked the Centurion’s quarters,  a Legionnaire in crimson leather strode purposefully into the middle of the street, stopped directly in her path, and glared at her.

She froze; catching her breath and refusing to breathe so not to give herself away as her mind spun, seeking some means of escape.  She remained invisible behind the ripple of light she bent round herself, but his crimson stare pierced into her from beneath a broad, brown leather bandana, which kept his shoulder-length, jet black hair from falling into his eyes.  In the mustiness and reek of the Bathracht encampment, he had turned the collar of his coat up and had cinched it tightly to avert some measure of the noxious fumes poisoning the air. He stood unmoving with his arms crossed assertively across his broad chest while, in an incongruously non-threatening gesture, his held his wings tightly folded behind him.

“Yes, I can see you.”  His voice was little more than a hoarse whisper, but it sent a shudder through her that made her teeth chatter…..

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This snippet introduces one of several new characters in Breaking Into The Light.  His name is Nunvaret and he is a Captain of Demonfey.

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Discover more about Dark Fey here

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~Morgan~

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Extraordinary Original Artwork by:  fuka-enrique at deviantart.com 

Filed under: Dark Fey, Friday FeyDay / Fantasy Tagged: BnV, Book Snippet, Book Teaser, BooknVolume, Dark Fantasy, Dark Fey, Fantasy, Fantasy Preview, Fear, Free Preview, ~Morgan~

Sunlit Grace — breathwords

via Sunlit Grace — breathwords

So Beautiful!  I had to share it