It’s Five Minute Friday time!

Who’s ready to exhale a long breath and sink into the weekend?

Who’s ready to let your fingers fly across the keyboard or journal and just get it all out?

That’s what we’re about here at Five Minute Friday. We write fast and free, for five minutes flat. All are welcome! Feel free to join the fun, and invite your friends! Link-ups go live at 10pm EST on Thursday nights and remain open all week!

To foster community and the spirit of encouragement, please read and comment on the blog linked up before your own. And have fun!

Learn more about Five Minute Friday here.

And guess what?

 

We’re planning another retreat!

 

retreat

 

If you didn’t manage to fill out the FMF Retreat Survey last week, please do so now by clicking here.

 

Now … let’s write!

This week’s FMF prompt is:

middle

 

 

Ready? GO.

 

So here’s the thing. I don’t write about politics. Like, ever.

Sure, I have my opinions and convictions but I guess I just don’t feel the need to air them. So this really isn’t meant to be “a political post” or to stir up any heated debate.

It’s just that, like many of you, I watched Obama’s farewell speech this week.

And yes, I cried.

Right around the time he said the word, “Michelle,” I couldn’t blink back the tears any longer.

Here’s what I took away from that speech:

1. Be the change

 

middle

 

2. Embrace differences

 

And thirdly, not so much from the content of the speech itself but from the aftermath:

3. Sometimes it’s okay to meet in the middle.

I feel like this world can be so polarized at times. So black and white. And yes, we should have principles and convictions and absolutes.

But we don’t need to attack the ones who think differently.

 

middle

It’s okay for me to say that I didn’t agree with many of Obama’s policies or decisions, but that I still think he is a man of incredible integrity. I can say that I don’t support his view on certain issues, and still stand in awe of the fact that he and his family carried themselves with such class and dignity over the past eight years, particularly in such a pressured, public role.

I don’t have to love everything or hate everything.

I can be in the middle.

And sometimes the middle is a fine place to be.

STOP.

 

It’s your turn! Share your own five minutes of free writing below — and don’t forget to leave a comment for your link-up neighbor!

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