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In this life we wear many faces. We carry many burdens. We celebrate many joys. We make mistakes from which we learn. We have triumphs that give us wings. We have biological families, extended families, accidental families and chosen families. We argue, we agree. We fight over inconsequential matters and we fight for that which does matter.

Through it all, the misunderstandings, the joyous understandings. The untruths and the beautiful truths, family is family. This bond, whether formed from one’s birthing or forged from one’s living; is good, is real, is true.

To be true, to be real, to peel back the layers of painful disguises to open our eyes, takes courage, takes strength, takes love and takes faith. Faith in ones true self and faith in the trueness of others.
Faith that through the pain, the answers will emerge.

Faith that each struggle will strengthen us. Faith that each heartache will fill us with compassion. Faith that each loss will remind us to live life to the fullest in the truest way we know how. Faith that when one moves from this life to the next, all transgressions are understood and forgiven. That all slights are forgotten.

That all triumphs are celebrated and all failures embraced. That in this moment of startling loss we remember that we are human, not infallible but definitely indomitable in our quest for knowledge, for understanding, for love and finally for peace.

A future lay in ashes
it’s reckoning scribbled
within the constellations

Three by three circles
a life once filled with promise
falling into fiery flames

Curses rise unheard
in the narrow mindedness of man
where only emptiness blows

Who is that woman in the mirror,
looking back at me?
Someone from the future,
not someone I’d hoped to be.

Where has all the time gone,
somehow it slipped away.
My hair so very thin now,
just look at all that gray.

A back no longer straight,
but bent and racked with pain.
No longer can I skate or ride,
or even walk again.

Each day I face the sunrise
with hope this pain will ease.
Every night I go to sleep
thinking my prayers are just a tease.

Not sure when all this happened,
of my family there is none.
Looked up from life’s requirements
and found I’m all alone.

Sitting in the dark
wondering what part
I’ve played within my own life

A part that I have played
several times but never stayed
was that of the adoring loving wife

I stuck it out until
it became a bitter pill
life was only filled with angst and strife

Seems no matter what I do
don’t know if it’s me or if it’s you
I’m left here sitting and contemplating life

Dear Santa,

I know I am old and much past the time of believing you can fly through the sky in a red sleigh, behind magical reindeer whose harnesses jingle each time you land quietly and stealthily upon every rooftop, chimney, cabin top, mobile home, RV, teepee, tent, lean-to or shed in the whole world in less than twenty-four hours, with a sack full of goodies and toys for every good girl and boy.

I know I have not always been good, sometimes I have been very, very bad; but, my intentions and my heart have always been true and mostly pure, except maybe that one time and I think, I believe, I hope I can be forgiven that as a transgression of youthful naivety, which it was, so if you are agreeable, we will let the past stay in the past.

What I’m saying, and hope you will also think as well, that overall I have been a good girl, a good woman and now, a pretty good elderly lady who is writing to you to ask if you might reach into that wondrous bag and pull out a tiny gift just for me that, should you deem it so, I will share with as many others as possible.

Dearest Santa, might you bring me, (whispering in your ear) this year please?

Merry Christmas Everyone!!

Love Gypsie-Ami

WORDPRESS Question of the Day? 12/23/2024 Posted by Stine Writing

Daily writing prompt – Share what you know about the year you were born.

A nuclear bomb erroneously dropped on United States soil in South Carolina by one of our own bombers, fails to detonate, thankfully! Instant ramen was introduced in Japan by Momofuku Ando, much to the delight of my grandson.

The first successful mammalian in vitro procedure into a surrogate mother took place, producing a healthy mischief of pinkies (baby mice!).

NASA is formally created, my father would be employed there seven years later. The first successful American satellite, Explorer I, is launched into orbit, there were 11,330 individual satellites orbiting the Earth at the end of June 2023.

The Lituya Bay earthquake and megatsunami created a wave that reached 1,719 feet at the entrance of Gilbert Inlet, miraculously only five people lost their lives as it was a heavily forested area. Not miraculous for those five people, however.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was participating in and leading marches for the right to vote, desegregation, labor rights, and other civil rights. His work is still being carried on, thankfully.

Music reigned like it never had before. Elvis Presley had three singles on the year’s top fifty billboard report, right up there with Dean Martin, Perry Como, Ricky Nelson, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Nat King Cole, Connie Francis, Buddy Holly and many, many more.

Ahh, rock ‘n roll!! I was born in 1958, did you figure it out?

Very happy to announce my environmental poem, “Mother’s Warning ” has been accepted and published by WILDsound Writing for Poetry and will also be recorded by Val Cole. Please visit –

https://festivalforpoetry.com/2024/12/23/environmental-poem-mothers-warning-by-ami-offenbacher-ferris/

Thank you Matthew at WILDsound Writing Festival for your support and belief in my craft.

The Challenge issued by Esther Chilton:
Tell a story in 25 words using the following words somewhere in the story:
SCROOGE
GNOME
CHIMNEY
GLOWING

A glowing gnome slid down the tiny chimney dressed as Santa Gnome. Rotund Santa Gnome landed hard on the head of Scrooge, killing him instantly.

Far away into the night
they traverse together
enjoying the sites

Companionable silence
erupts into fights before stillness
once more rides the roads

One in his world of earthly delights
the other immersed in electronic respite
so close together so very far apart

Two ships in a storm
not passing not moving
tangled together by histories anchor

Neither willing to break the old mold
afraid of ruining a lifetime of work
while leaving the lonely one at home

Follow me said minor a to minor b
together we can make a middle c
we’ll strum along each silvery string

We’ll scrape off the dust
we’ll all start fresh
no longer remote no longer moody

Let the magic follow
slippery as candles wax
and write a misty song