God's Canvas

The weeks heavy rain has left the landscape before me completely refreshed.  There are lush greens of every shade and a watery marsh below that glistens when kissed by the sun.  The leaves seem to act as tiny cups allowing the butterflies to drink from nature's water.  The wind starts with a gentle breeze but slowly the limbs begin to sway.  Little bugs almost seem to be playing follow-the-leader as they buzz through the air.  I hear a squawking bird in a distance making his presence known.  Locust or something of the sort seems to compete with a loud hum, it's almost like a siren that gets loud and then slowly fades.  As my ears adjust, there seems to be a rhythm to it all.  Even the humming mellows into a peaceful flow as dripping drops of water trickle down to the earth below.  Suddenly a flicker on the tree catches my eye.  It's actually a drop of water with the appearance of a flame.  Then something amazing happens, I see little glimmers of lights like on a Christmas tree.  They are little dabs of water with the sun filtering through creating God's natural lights on these strong limbs.  God is an artist and this earth is His canvas, I feel blessed to sit here and just observe his creation around me!

Today's writing prompt is #962, "Sit in total silence for 5 minutes and observe the things around you.  Write a story about the sense of awareness this brings you."

~ Chelle
   9/26/13

Nightly Ramble

I'm not feeling too creative tonight, but write I must.  I couldn't find a prompt that caught my attention so I figured I would ramble for a bit.  I am amazed at God's hand over my life as I look back on the last 9 years.  I left a small town in West Virginia and landed in New York.  I still remember coming out of the bus station and being surrounded by these giant buildings and hundreds of people bustling on the streets.  Bright signs flashing pictures on the buildings.  Vendors on every corner, paintings, purses, jewelry, food. MMMM the smell of the pretzels and hotdogs wafting in the air as I walked by.  A crowded subway with all sorts of people.  White, black, olive, brown... eyes in every shade, blue green, brown... languages I never even knew existed.  New York City was a world within a world all on it's on.  I recall the train ride out of the city.  Two small suitcases and a dream.

A couple of years later and a marriage in despair I find myself on a plane flying through the air.  I land in Florida with two suitcases, although nicer than the ones before, and several boxes. I go from an apartment with mold on the ceilings to a townhouse with more luxuries than I could have imagined... a pool, hot tub, dishwasher, ice-maker, washer, and dryer.  What?!  It was a completely new way of life for me.  I saw my office of two grow into 5.  Our warehouse went from daily Fed Ex drive-bys to a trailer packed full and picked up nightly.  Things in the corporate world began to shift and we moved on up into a beautiful office, but without a warehouse.  I'm not the cut throat type and I tend to be way too nice, so I find myself outgrowing things here.

Just when I think I can't make it another day, the door to Louisiana opens wide.  Here I go again, only with more than two suitcases and not at all alone. I am excited to see what God has in store for me and this leg of my journey.  I've come a long way and still have a long way to go!

~ Chelle
   9/25/13

A Leafy Experience

My bright green color is starting to fade or is it morphing into a new orange or red? I feel the color draining from my being as look around and see other leaves beginning to fall.  What is this that is happening to this tree standing so strong and tall?  The rains of spring have drenched us, the sizzling sun of summer almost scorched us, yet we still clung to the branches our hues of green acting as a shade to all.  Now I see us changing colors and drifting away with the wind.  My green glow has been transformed into a bright orange beauty that takes your breath away.  All who walk by are mesmerized by the glimmer of light reflecting through me, it's as if flickering flames of a fire have appeared on me.  My beauty and  the beauty of those surrounding me create a perfect masterpiece from God above.  What is to become of us?  Where does the wind carry my fellow leaves I have grown to love? While I am contemplating my being, a gentle breeze lightly brushes through me.  I begin to twist and rustle.  I break free from the branch that I didn't even realize was binding me and floated carelessly through the air.  The sound of the wind was like a peaceful lullaby as it rocked me to my final resting place.  I land among the others who had fallen before me, ready to sleep and be recreated in life's cycle.  I will slowly become one with the ground, enriching it.  In turn, it will nourish my tree and in the Spring tiny buds of life will come out again.

~ Chelle
9/24/13

Today's writing prompt is #95. "You are a leaf on a tree that is undergoing foliage.  What are your leafy thoughts and feelings?

Back in The Saddle Again: Haunted Dreams

I'm trying to get back into the habit of writing.  I am determined to write something everyday.  After all. to perfect something you must do it and do it often.  I cam across this book, "1,000 Creative Writing Prompts Ideas for Blogs, Scripts, Stories, and More," by  Bryan Cohen.  These prompts seem like the perfect way to stir up my creative energy.  I'm going to take his challenge and choose 1 a day to explore into my writing world.  The writings might start off a little rusty, but I am hopeful to slide back into the saddle with ease and continue to improve with each piece I write.

Today's writing prompt is #921.  "talk about an experience in which you felt an other worldly presence.  If you do not have one, make one up or talk about how a real life experience might have been influenced by some kind of ghost."

Haunted Dreams

I always felt my grandma's back room upstairs was haunted.  I  had heard stories of bodies being kept there until burial many years before I was born.  Spirits could easily linger there and that is a thought that still haunts my dreams until this day.  I wouldn't say my grandma's house was ancient but it was definitely very old. She had lived in it as a young girl before indoor bathrooms and running water even existed. I recall an outhouse that my Uncle Junior used to pick us up and jokingly threaten to throw us down as little children.  I have so many fond memories of that old house, I can only imagine the memories of previous generations that still haunt it to this day.

My haunted dreams never vary much, yet they still send chills through me.  There is a single light bulb screwed into a simple base in the middle of the room. There is no light switch, just a string dangling down from it.  I can see the light on from the bottom of the stairs and I know I have to make that long walk up them and into the room to turn the light off. It seems my grandma's large metal window fan is always spinning and needs to be unplugged in this process.  As I run into the room and pull it's chord, I feel the presence of something or someone watching me.  The fan is only a few feet from the light but it seems to take me forever to get back to it to yank the light cord.  The light goes off leaving me in complete darkness as I leap down the stairs and slam the door shut.  I seem to think closing the door somehow traps the unworldly being upstairs and then I wake in a cold sweat, heart pounding.  It's such a strange dream to have about a house I have not slept in for so many years, yet it brings me back to a single moment in time.

I was in high school.  I had conquered my fear of being upstairs at night and usually slept in the first room of it.  I had a lot going on in my family and in my life.  I tend to take every little thing to heart and worrying seems to be in my nature.  I'm fairly certain that is what prompted this super natural visit.  I was sound asleep when a presence woke me.  It was as if I could feel someone staring at me.  Before my eyes stood my daddy, who died when I was 3 months old.  I couldn't move, my mind reeling trying to make sense of what I saw.  The room I slept in had a tilted roof and daddy was rather tall so he was slightly bent by my bed.  His tender blue eyes were filled with love as he told me everything would be okay, everything would always be okay and he loved me and would be watching over me.  Suddenly the weight of seeing my dead father terrified me as I jumped out of bed and skipped down the stairs so fast that I think i missed most of them.  I never slept another night in that room.

I wish I could go back into that moment of time.  I would not have been scared, but instead I would have told him I loved him too.  He never came to me again, at least not in such a vivid way.  It's a comfort to know my daddy is watching over me, it is something I truly believe.  The stories hidden in that house are greater than I could imagine.  I wonder if anyone else has been visited by a glimpse of it's past.  This interaction with my daddy is the only memory I have of him and fear forced it to end much too short, or perhaps I heard what he really wanted to convey and there was no need for him to return.  A brief moment suspended in time, forever engraved into my mind, and permanently hidden in my heart.

Chelle
9/23/13