My, oh, my, my dear fellow virtual travellers! Are you ready for the weekend? Yes, I know, for most it’s nearly over but for me, it just started a couple of hours ago courtesy of working every Saturday and having every Mondy off. It has advantages 😉 So, let’s ring it in accordingly with a new prompt from the lovely Linda G Hill!

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “my.” Start your post with the word “My.” Bonus points if you end your post with “yours.” Enjoy!

Find her prompt post and a whole lotta great blogposts working with her prompt here.

Disclaimer:

I want to mention one thing: “Mallory Travels The World” does live in an alternate universe where we do not have to bother with COVID. There are political and environmental issues that are similar to our reality but all is made up. Please forgive me 🙂 . And this week there emight be some rude language too. Sorry

Please check out here if you missed the previous Stream of Consciousness virtual travel & music adventure instalments.

“My Goodness!” said Mallory. This passage into Petra is awesome!” She locked up to a sliver of the blue sky then down along the Sandstone leading forward. The murmur of other travellers accompanied them and even in this shady passage, it was pretty warm. “These Nabataeans did know how to create some cooling effects. But their name-giving was a bit funny,” said Bianca by Mallory’s side. Both wore practical hiking boots, jeans and shirts. Bianca in bright orange and Mallory in a for her unusual light purple. Draped over their heads were thin colourful shawls. They stayed a little behind the rest of the group to enjoy the magnificence of the place unperturbed. “Why?” asked Mallory. “Well, “Petra” is a girls name in German but I think the origin of this place is different. “Raqma” I think” . Mallory shook her head. “Petra” means “rock” in Greek and that fits. The guide just said a minute ago or so.” Bianca took Mallory’s arm when they walked around another corner and faced a greek looking front hewn into the rock face. “That, of course, makes sense here,” Bianca said ” and I should have known!”. Mallory looked at her and raised an eyebrow. “Well, my parents were missionaries. I grew up with daily bible study. “Petrus” means rock too but I think it’s Peter in English.”

They followed the group a little closer now to hear what the guide had to say:

“Your parents were missionaries?” Mallory asked when they walked again without the guide saying anything more. “Yes!” was all Bianca answered as they followed a sandy path with dry shrubs growing here and there. “But you are a Buddhist now, are you?” Bianca shook her head:” No!” “But you meditate and wear stuff like Buddhists.” Bianca rolled her eyes. “That doesn’t mean I subscribe to any organised religion. I am spiritual. I believe in a higher power but the old testament was right. “Thou shall not make any graven image…”. Spirit is too big for us to understand. All images we make of her no matter which religion the image belongs to is just one aspect of spirit. Only brought together it could make sense.” “Hmmm that is too high and complicated for me,” said Mallory. “In my opinion, any idea of God is just our logic desperately trying to make sense of why we developed it. It all just leads back to the power of Nature. And please do not call her mother. There is nothing motherly about nature!” Bianca leant against a rock for a moment. Then walked on. “Your theory probably as good a theory as any and might not even be a contradiction to what I’ve said.” She said after a while. “But I disagree with Nature not being motherly. You forget that mothers have the power to give and take life. And that is exactly what nature does. Just because the west created a lovey-dovey image of the caregiving woman and totally abandoned the knowledge of women’s imminent power doesn’t mean it’s not there. We’ve just forgotten that the blokes wouldn’t get anywhere without us.” They stopped for a moment to marvel at a little stream. “No they wouldn’t but we wouldn’t either without them!” said Mallory when they started walking again. Bianca huffed. “I didn’t expect you to say that but I suspect you are right. I just wish more people would see it that way.”

“I like that idea of the power in us. I certainly forgot it when I was with Vivien. We women are not always particularly nice to each other, are we? We don’t need men to bring us down, we can do it quite well ourselves.” Bianca stopped and hold onto Mallory’s arm. When the younger woman stopped walking she hugged her and whispered in her ear:” I know!” Mallory freed herself and walked a little faster. Bianca sighed and followed. They had reached the end of the tour. Back in the bus music greeted them. They sat down close to the middle of the vehicle as it seemed to be the coolest there. “I say “up yours” all drama kings & queens and other nasty people,” Mallory said and Bianca answered:” Yes up yours!”

Thanks, my dears, for staying with me until the end.

I appreciate your presence.

Please stay safe, stay kind and remember that you rock!

Just one more thing before you go: The hospital that was treating me for breast cancer is fundraising for a dedicated breast cancer unit which would allow some same-day diagnosis and better premises for patients and staff.

Please, if you can spare a little money hop over to their Just Giving Page and give as little or much as you can. Or share the page on your social media. So far the campaign has raised about half the amount needed: £451,424 of £800,000 (August 2021).

Supporting this means a lot to me! Thank you very much for yours