5 Minute Friday ~ Enough

Joining Lisa-Jo for another Five Minute Friday!

"It’s Five Minute Friday free write time!

 

Where a flash mob of folks spend five minutes all writing on the same topic and then share ‘em over here.

 

Want to know how Five Minute Friday got started? All the details are here. And every week I’ll pick a post that caught my eye and share it down there in my side bar – see where it says “Featured Five Minute Friday”? Yea -that could be you!

 

Because, as we all know, the most important rule of Five Minute Friday is leaving an encouraging comment for the person who linked up before you. So getting to feature one of your fine posts is like frosting as far as I’m concerned.

 

So, set your timer, clear your head, for five minutes of free writing without worrying about getting it right.

 

1. Write for 5 minutes flat – no editing, no over thinking, no backtracking.
2. Link back here and invite others to join in.
3. And then absolutely, no ifs, ands or buts about it, you need to visit the person who linked up before you & encourage them in their comments. Seriously. That is, like, the rule. And the fun. And the heart of this community..
4. OK, are you ready? Please give me your best five minutes on...

Enough…"

I've always truthfully said that Niamey is most certainly NOT one of those places...

No one in their right mind, at least that I know, would pull out a world map, place their finger on a star next to a blue squiqqly line just on the backside of the Sahara and exclaim, "Of all the places in the world, I want to live THERE!" An island in the Carribean... along the coast of the Mediterranean... the foothills of the Rockies... an island cradled by waves in the Gulf of St. Lawrence... perhaps! But not Niamey... not likely.

Yet it is only about a 30 minute drive (traffic cooperating, of course) to get to what truly is, in my opinion, an amazingly beautiful spot and one of my most favorite places in the whole wide world.

There is nothing like a desert sky, out away from the lights of the cities. On clear nights, there truly are more stars than you could imagine numbering. And they are brilliantly radiant - not the dim twinkles they appear when I'm gazing up from within the city.

And then to look out, in a world where electric lights are farther away than a day's walk reality, and see the campfires! It may only be a bundle of 10-12 sticks, but once flame ignites, you can see them dotting the dunes for miles in all directions - even on the plateau across the river.

I think of the oft repeated Reverend Alden quote:

"There is not enough darkness in all the world to put out the light of even one small candle.”

We were out at the dunes again recently - but this time I noticed a distinct change:

Tall poles with lines strung between. Modernity, bringing ectricity along with her, has made an appearance.

One of the nearby villages, maybe six or seven kilometers distant (not as the crow flies, but following the newly paved road back towards town), now has electricity and artificial light glares, intruding into the peacefulness of that place.

And I was struck by this truth:

It is true that darkness may not extinquish the light of a small flame.

However, the defiantly arrogant and brash rays

gleaming from artificial, man created light

just may drown out, or draw away from, 

the soft warm welcoming circle gently glowing about the embers of the real thing.

(Reverend Alden is the well-known Reverend from Little House on the Prairie fame.)