Tag Archives: Fielies’ 100-word Ponderings

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This is NOT an AI Hate Article – It’s Just an Appeal to Survival

Visual art of a photograph of a human taken by a human

Written by a human

100+100 Words: Since being on the towards-hundred-side of 40, I too started reminiscing on memories of things past. This is not on purpose – it seems to happen by design. I remember an innocent time when children played in mud and climbed trees and collected anything from erasers to stamps and writing block pages as hobbies and I remember – tearfully – family and friends who are not here anymore and friends who had emigrated for their children and are now left by their children. And sometimes I even wonder if the memories I have, are mine or if they’re from books or made up.

Today we – once innocents – are up against intelligence generated by machines. We have more knowledge available at our fingertips than any other generation before us. But it made us lazier and dumber. AI is the next buzz happening and it’s a bigger threat to human creativity and originality than anything ever before. And like the phenomenon of smart phones, we will let it take us over – willingly. But let’s fight back. Let’s do real things again, like crocheting and drawing by hand. Let’s write emails and essays using our brains, because if we don’t, soon we won’t be able to anymore.

10+10-words Takeaway: Let’s live for real in an artificially-driven world, so that we have real memories to reminisce on when we’re old.

Read the previous 100-word Pondering here.

© 2025 Fielies De Kock

Fielies De Kock is a freelance content writer/blogger (www.fieliesdekock.com) living in Hermanus in the Overberg, South Africa, with her crazy-haired husband and two dogs. She authored a children’s chapter book and a few short reads and is co-author of 125 Creative Writing Prompts for Petrolheads (available on Amazon Kindle) with her content writer son – who also has crazy hair.

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Audition your Thoughts and if they don’t Perform Positively, Kick them Off the Stage!

#10

100 Words: I recently read tips on how to stay encouraged and one point was to hold ‘thought auditions’. As we’re getting older and more isolated and come into contact with others getting older and lonelier, it becomes a repeating theme. People break contact with each other because of the thoughts they entertain. The thing with one’s thoughts is that one leads to another and another… and after a while, the thoughts get intermingled with untruths, and trust is broken – and fixing broken relationships gets almost impossible. All because one little ‘unauditioned’ thought was being allowed to grow into a web of untruths.

Under 10-words Takeaway: Banish negative, untrue thoughts to save your relationships.

Read the previous 100-word Pondering here.

© 2025  Fielies De Kock

Fielies De Kock is a freelance content writer/blogger (www.fieliesdekock.com) living in Hermanus in the Overberg, South Africa, with her crazy-haired husband and two dogs. She authored a children’s chapter book and a few short reads and is co-author of 125 Creative Writing Prompts for Petrolheads (available on Amazon Kindle) with her content writer son – who also has crazy hair.

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Tribute to a Woman Who Left her Earthly Home

From the furniture one can deduce that they always lived in large houses. They are big pieces oozing generational pedigree and there are lots of them – chests of drawers, bookshelves, couches, smaller tables, a round table looking smallish in the foyer. Despite the many pieces, the house isn’t cluttered, but thoughtfully and tastefully decorated with soulful wall hangings, a few large photo family collages and memorabilia from travels and heirlooms strategically placed on surfaces. The dogs’ oversized beds fit neatly in a corner leading to the main bedroom without looking out of place or in the way. The cat sleeps wherever and sits wherever throughout the day, but mostly on one’s lap if you allow her and at night, she crawls in wherever she is welcomed, looking for comfort. The house was a happy home, it seems, but change is visible in the pets’ subdued behaviour. They seek human contact and comfort, only to retreat again to a corner or wander aimlessly through the living areas. Quilts and crocheted blankets still cover the beds – a silent legacy to be enjoyed by those she left behind, that they will provide warmth to guest for years to come.

The real evidence sits untouched on a chair in a corner of the sunny living room, in a basket filled with crocheted blocks – some separate and some already sewn together. The pattern waits on top of the half finish project.

It will remain unfinished now.

© 2023  Fielies De Kock

Fielies De Kock is a freelance content writer and blogger living in Hermanus in the Overberg, South Africa, with her crazy-haired husband and two dogs. She authored a children’s chapter book and a few short reads and is co-author of 125 Creative Writing Prompts for Petrolheads (available on Amazon Kindle) with her content writer son – who also has crazy hair.

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Close the Tap Every Now and Then

#9

100 Words: It’s dry season in the Cape now, so our dams are emptying rapidly. The 2017/18 drought is still fresh in our memories and with the electricity crisis, our water supply is in danger countrywide. But in a world where we operate like headless chickens, humans are in danger of running dry too. We need to help and serve others, but a tap without water cannot fill an empty cup. As we give, we also need to take in, switch off, take a rest and replenish – otherwise our taps will not only run dry, but our feeding source is threatened too.

Under 10-words Takeaway: Soak in the rain (rest) to replenish your resources regularly.

Read Fielies’ next 100 Pondering here. Start reading the series from here.

© 2023  Fielies De Kock

Fielies De Kock is a freelance content writer and blogger living in Hermanus in the Overberg, South Africa, with her crazy-haired husband and two dogs. She authored a children’s chapter book and a few short reads and is co-author of 125 Creative Writing Prompts for Petrolheads (available on Amazon Kindle) with her content writer son – who also has crazy hair.