Mindful writing prompt #47: Summer Solstice

We lay plans. We imagine what our days will be like. It's human nature.

For this Summer Solstice night we had picked out a spot by the sea, facing north-west, a perfect spot to watch the sun set on this longest day/shortest night of the year. These nordic nights are so light, so  blue. A week ago we drove by and said, That's where we'll go. We'll bring fresh prawns. Perfect food  to eat on the rocks by the sea. 

It was going to be like a date. 

Instead, Sigve was in a hospital bed, I was in a guest bed in my daughter's house. Sometimes life gets in the way of our plans.

A sun for Summer Solstice.

My husband has had an unidentified infection for nearly 2 months, and at the moment we're staying at the Haukeland Hospital's patient's hotel (in Bergen). Testing and treating is going on, don't know how long we'll be here. I'm on edge, and my concentration ability is wobbly at best. I'm so sorry I'm slow in returning comments! But I'm hoping for your understanding in this because I really want to keep blogging; it's a wonderful stress outlet! 

Mindful writing prompt #47

The ones with flaring tempers

Wordle 61

The words to play with were:

blend latch chest current draft string

crack spare temper refrain racket trace strike

* * * * *

The ones with flaring tempers refrained from blending in when the racket increased. Instead they fled on a drafty current, stringing along all traces of who they had been. All that remained was a cracked chest with a latch that didn't work, and no spare key. Why didn't this strike anyone as odd?

* * * * *

The Sunday Whirl

More Zentangling

Thursday tangle

Zentangle

A Zendala for today

The stones along the river

Wordle 60

The words to play with were: 

bluffs, willow, corona, brush, trembled, 

mud, crawl, vessels, nail, stain, shadows, stones

* * * * *

The stones along the river lay heavy on the roots of the willows. As they watched the mud stained water crawl by, they whispered among themselves, wondering what it would be like to move on in the world.

The willows laughed when they heard this, knowing that if the stones were to hurl themselves into this lazy river they would sink like, yes, stones.

-The likes of us are heavy and firmly rooted and not meant to go anywhere, they said.

One evening just before sunset, dark shadows came floating down the river. To their horror, the willows could see that they were vessels made out of trees that had been cut down, and nails has been driven into them. They trembled, and stirred up more mud along the river bank as they considered this fate.

The stones had seen them too. -You were bluffing, they growled, it is possible for us to travel! -We could sit in vessels like that and not sink!

Eagerly they strained themselves to the point were many of them tipped over. Lying there on their backs, looking up at the corona of sunshine around the back lit willows, they wondered how many millenniums it would take them to get back into their spots. And now, as the view of the beautiful setting sun had caught their attention, they forgot about traveling.

The shadowy vessels brushed by the willows and floated slowly out of sight.

The willows drew deep breaths of relief. They would never have been willing to sacrifice themselves so the stones could go off on a joyride anyway.

The Sunday Whirl

Doodling

I have been absent from blogging for a while. My husband has been sick for 6 weeks, and in hospital for 4 of them, being treated for an infection. With his history of leukemia and stem cell transplant in Aug. 2010, these things are a bit tricky. The short version is that in the end he responded to an anti fungal medication, and is doing well now. 

The infection came on quite suddenly, and I wasn't able to concentrate on the things I usually do, like blogging, photography and writing. So I had to find another artistic outlet that I could handle, because we need that, no matter what, don't we? 

I have always been convinced that I can't draw, and equally convinced that I should be able to learn some kind of drawing. I had a look around Pinterest, and found that lots and lots of people out there are doodling and Zentangling. I had a go at it, and discovered that it was something that I could actually do. And almost equally important, I discovered that it's an excellent exercise in mindfulness and relaxation. So in between hospital visits, I spent my days doodling and Zentangling while listening to audio books. Now I enjoy it so much that I'll keep on developing my skills. My days are going to need more than just the 24 hours, though, sigh.... :-)

Here are a couple of my tangles: