Five Minutes explores five minutes of a life in one hundred words. Five minutes is edited by Susanna Baird, with editorial support from managing editor Maria s. picone, newsletter editor kate meen, and founding reader bobbi lerman, plus our rotating team of guest readers, who you can meet in the latest newsletteR. Five Minutes was founded in October 2020, with the Salem (Mass.)-based writing group Carrot Cake Writers supplying the journal’s first pieces. We’d love to read your five. Submit here

Brave

 

I am brave. Small spaces terrify me. I hate my fear. I swore to face it to see the ancient artifacts encased by dripping stone at the Cave of the Stone Sepulcher in Belize. It just meant swimming an underground pool and winding through a tight maze in the dark. Sweaty nightmares plagued the night before. Then at breakfast the sweetest five minutes.  “I’m sorry, ma’am. There were flash floods in the cave last night. Today’s tour is canceled. Would you like to try tomorrow?” Nightmare justified. “No, I’m good.” I am brave. I have fear. I’m fine with that.

Betsy Ellor is the senior editor for Words Unbound Studio. When not writing she spends her time hiking and battling prehistoric mosquitoes in the woods of Massachusetts. Twitter & Facebook: @bewordsunbound



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