The exercise:
Let's go with: the sanctuary.
Back home safe and sound. Still trying to warm the house up. This place gets so cold while we're away.
Quick update on yesterday's post: the Canucks ended up winning, so they've got the three games to none advantage.
Mine:
While the city is exciting and busy, it often leaves me feeling dizzy. At every corner I see people in a tizzy.
This is not what I need. Life there does not flow at my speed. Whoever agreed to this pace should apologize for their misdeed.
But I have broken free from that mad misery. I am back with the birds, bees, and trees. The peace and space and rhythms that soothe me.
I am back in my sanctuary.
Let's go with: the sanctuary.
Back home safe and sound. Still trying to warm the house up. This place gets so cold while we're away.
Quick update on yesterday's post: the Canucks ended up winning, so they've got the three games to none advantage.
Mine:
While the city is exciting and busy, it often leaves me feeling dizzy. At every corner I see people in a tizzy.
This is not what I need. Life there does not flow at my speed. Whoever agreed to this pace should apologize for their misdeed.
But I have broken free from that mad misery. I am back with the birds, bees, and trees. The peace and space and rhythms that soothe me.
I am back in my sanctuary.
Looks like you got home late then! I hope the house warms up quickly, though I think part of it is that a house that's not lived in for a few days changes its character: whenever I have to travel for work the flat seems somehow colder when I come back than it really is.
ReplyDeleteI'll have to come back and comment on your piece when you've got it up :)
The sanctuary
Dr. Septopus paused. Somewhere off in the distance there was a howl, as made perhaps by an angry Coyote. He needed somewhere to hide and shake the Coyote from his trail.
Ahead was the Aquakitty Sanctuary for some kind of cats; trees had grown erratically over the sign making it hard to read. The smell of cats might hide him from the Coyote's inquisitive nose though.
Tentacles writhing like snakes, he slithered over to the fence and quickly hoisted himself up and over, landing with a heavy crash in the shrubs on the other side. Then he slithered in deeper, looking for dark shadows and densely packed trees to hide in.
Some distance off to his left, a panther stood and stretched, coat glossy in the moonlight and its eyes gleaming redly.
On the other side of the fence, the rising wind made the trees sway, the branches moving to reveal the hidden word that Dr. Septopus hadn't been able to read.
The Aquakitty Sanctuary for Psychopathic Cats.
It just goes from bad to worse for Dr. Septopus! :)
ReplyDelete---------------
In bed,
She can avoid
The chaos of the day.
She snuggles down in the blankets
Ignoring the ruckus outside the door.
She knows she must get up sometime.
She puts off the noisy
Moment longer,
In bed.
Marc- I like the rhyming rhythm, but not the paragraph format. It felt too poetic to be drawn as a block. That said, it was still very well done.
ReplyDeleteGreg- I walked around saying Aquakitty, changing where I assume the intended stress should have fallen to 'quak'. So much more fun to say it that way! And addictive. I do feel for the doctor..... and those who will suffer his revenge.
Morganna- That is how I feel every day. I am so the child in my relationship with my children when it comes to morning routines. "Just a few more minutes, then I will get up."
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I could hear the familiar sounds of kids screaming, babies crying, and adults screaming and crying. I curled into a smaller ball, my feet rising completely off the floor to rest on the cold steel bench. I leaned my back further into the corner. Somewhere, my children were a part of the chaos. I opened my book, the new book smell drifting up as I flipped the first few crisp pages. Ahhhhh, I loved spending time in my sanctuary.
Sanctuary
ReplyDeleteKenzy had been walking for days. It was the most alien and unwelcoming land she had ever seen. A combined terrain of desert and coarse rocks, she would be climbing on jagged ends one moment then sinking into soft pockets of deep and silky sand the next, without warning. It felt like she was experiencing an oxymoron to the mind and even though, the scientist within her wanted to stop to try and logically make sense of this strange place, she knew that stopping would be a means to surrender to exhaustion. One more mile and then she would reach her destination, or so the book said.
She had read of this pristine place where only a numbered few had set foot. It had seemed like a beguiling account of yet another lost Atlantis. Yet curiosity had surrounded her and dreams of this strange land invaded her sleep every night. As far as she was concerned, the decision had been made for her. Nothing this strong could be ignored despite the many rational explanations she had attempted to give herself to stop herself from embarking on such a crazy expedition. Alone and without telling anyone, even Jay, her partner in science and life. But she just had to find out for herself.
She brought herself back to her current surroundings and noticed how now there was less of a rock-desert terrain and more of growing vegetation around her. It only took her a few more steps to realise how she was slowly leaving the harshness of her journey behind. It felt like an explosion to the senses. There was colour. There was smell. And there was even touch as tiny flying creatures brushed past her shoulders and cheeks. Her eyes just did not know where to look. There was too much to take in. And then there was the sound of a soft trickle of water coming from afar. She found herself inadvertently walking towards it. It did not even feel like she was walking anymore. More like floating just like she was in those recurring dreams. She was drawn towards it and before she knew it, she found herself in the midst of a piece of paradise.
Captivated as her senses were by the happenings around her, she forced herself to dig up the book from her backpack, her motions inexplicably slow and unforced. She read the title of the book that she had analysed for a year, a dreamy look in her eyes, and in an instant its true meaning was revealed. It was a title that summed up what had she had tried to understand with the mind of cynic but which only now, perfectly explained everything. Sanctuary. She was standing in the midst of it and knew that her life would never be the same again.
Greg - we did get back later than expected, but I still should have had mine up before midnight. Travel days are hard in general though.
ReplyDeleteAh, the poor doctor. Just keeps getting worse and worse.
Morganna - I can fully appreciate that feeling. Beds are wonderful sanctuaries.
Heather - I wasn't too crazy with it, but it was late and something had to come out :P
A quiet place *and* a book? Two sanctuaries in one, it seems to me :)
Watermark - you just took me away with your writing. Thank you for that extremely pleasant journey :)