SYW 1-5-26


Here are this week’s questions:

1.  How long did it take you to get back into the normal swing of things after the holidays? Since we all did not get together, no changes.

2.  Are you looking forward to 2026 with optimism? Not really.

3.  Are you taking part in any of the January WP challenges/prompts? I always do as many prompts as I can, usually all in a couple of days.

4.  If you could wish one thing for 2026, what would that be? Trump in jail.

Gratitude: I’m so happy my granddaughter is moving to a college closer to home🥳❤️

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Share Your World 5th January 2026

Simply Six Minutes

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I shouldn’t have said it, opened my big mouth and said what I’d wanted to for weeks. No more being a coward. No more just staring from afar. But today you looked so perfect, your friends all around you joking and having fun. I could never be in that group. No one looks at me the way they look at you. I would try to speak and then start stuttering, I’d be so nervous. But today, as soon as you stepped way from them, I decided to try. Today I moved into your space and said, “my name is Jake…I like you.” Dumb, I know, but I couldn’t say what I really felt. That close, I could hardly resist touching him and I definitely couldn’t say, “I think I’m in love with you.”

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Simply 6 Minutes – Welcome to the Challenge: 01/06/2026

Small Mercy?

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I found a secret when researching my family history, a witch? Some say she is now a ghost, but who really knows? All persons who actually knew this woman are now dead, possibly in the same dimension as she? There are old writings of her existence and what happened to her. I don’t think she was a witch, but experiencing the horrible effects of menopause. The way her actions were reported suggests it. In those days if a woman was not an obedient (barefoot and pregnant) person, she must be mentally ill or a witch. I wish I could travel back in time just to meet her and ask questions, possibly save her life. She was put in a dungeon and waiting to be hanged, and died there. I guess a small mercy is that she was not hanged.

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Fandango’s Story Starter #229

SYW 1-5-26

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Hoping not to experience the muted drama usually on display when Julie receives her chapter cup reward, we watched with interest of course as she accepted the precious sparkler and lit it quickly. It was definitely clear that number fifty sent a message to Julie and we all wiped our tears. We felt a life chapter had been completed, seeing the glittery fire burn and new destinations glow.

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MLMM Monday Wordle #458

Start the new year rightly, I agree enough is enough!:

“Senator Cory Booker’s statement on Trump’s actions in Venezuela is one for the books 👇

“Today, many leaders will rightly condemn President Donald Trump’s unlawful and unjust actions in Venezuela, and I join them.

But just as glaring, and far more damning, is Congress’ ongoing abdication of its constitutional duty. For almost a year now, the legislative branch has failed to check a president who repeatedly violates his oath, disregards the law, and endangers American interests at home and abroad.

Time and again, Congress, now led by Republicans, has chosen spineless complicity over its sworn responsibilities. From the reckless leaking of classified information that put American troops at risk, to the illegal use of military force destroying vessels and killing people in the Caribbean and the Pacific without congressional authorization, there has been a stunning absence of accountability.

No hearings.
No serious investigations.
No enforcement of checks and balances.
No accountability.

Again and again, the president has exceeded his authority, defied congressional intent, trampled the separation of powers, and broken the law – while Congress looked away in cowardice and submission.

Republicans in Congress own this corrosive collapse of our constitutional order. With only a handful of honorable exceptions, they have bent themselves to the will of Donald Trump, afraid to state in public the feelings they often communicate privately. That submission, this abandonment of independent judgment and constitutional courage, now stands as one of the greatest dangers to our nation and to the global order America claims to defend.

Nicolás Maduro is a brutal dictator who has committed grave abuses. The United States military remains the most capable fighting force on Earth, and our praiseworthy service members carry out their orders with professionalism and excellence.

But none of that suspends the Constitution.

The Constitution is unambiguous: Congress has the power and responsibility to authorize the use of military force and declare war. Congress has a duty of oversight. Congress must serve as a check, not a rubber stamp, to the President. On this count, Congress has failed.

We face an authoritarian-minded president who acts with dangerous growing impunity. He has shown a willingness to defy court orders, violate the law, ignore congressional intent, and shred basic norms of decency and democracy. This pattern will continue unless the Article I branch of government, especially Republican congressional leadership, finds the courage to act.

They must stop behaving as partisan puppets and start acting as patriotic constitutional stewards.

What happened today is wrong. Congressional Republicans would say so immediately if a Democratic president had done the same. Their silence is surrender. And in that surrender lie the seeds of our democratic unraveling.

There are still three years left in this administration. From the pardoning of individuals who violently attacked police officers while attempting to overturn our election to this latest extrajudicial assault on another nation’s sovereignty, the damage will continue unless it is confronted.

Enough is enough.”

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