It’s been a while. What happened to summer?
I sighed when I saw the post, “…and suddenly 1974 was 50 years ago.” Now another summer has come and gone. I could be depressed but instead, this speedy time travel inspires me.
My writing group’s prompt this month was “visual” and answer a question that intrigue me. My wrinkles, gray hair, and groans, stiffness every morning should create images of ugliness.
I shifted my perception and asked, “Where is the beauty in ugliness?”
For some bizarre reason, what many perceive as “ugly” inspires me.
For this month's assignment I blended "sight" and answered the question: What images on the surface are ugly but once reflected upon, viewed from another perspective, and looked into from a deeper level become beautiful? I began safe, then tip-toed into the risky.
Dark rain clouds. Black, not black, black but black. Dark gray sky rumbling in from the west. No rain yet, just that blur below the distant dark clouds that forewarn. I face the ghost. The wind picks up, pushes against my body, pulls back my hair. I see, yes, see the wind–trees swaying, waves of corn, hills of green and gold tassels waxing and waning, and birds swooping for cover. Ominous? Haunting? Scary? No…a white beam of sunlight shines through the dark clouds. A message from the universe. Nature's strength.
No pesticides. The aphids destroyed the top inch or two of the rose. Shiny green leaves turned brown and wilted. Ugly? No…A humming bird flits across the top. Sips the sticky sweetness. The aphid's ugly excrement is the hummingbird's delight. I smile.
Death. A dead baby rabbit. Not more than two days old. A cat? crow? No blood, no tearing or ripping, just a soft gray, like velvet. Eyes shut. Ears plastered against its head. Now wrapped in peaceful solace. The harsh beauty of nature.
September Assign
Thistle blossom,
The ugly thistle shows off its spectacular blossoms.
Butterflies swarm like bees to its purple cushion.
It’s not purple, it’s soft, soothing.
A puff of inspiration above tiny, abrasive swords of meanness, of meaningless pain.
Pain I must endure.
I’m intrigued by:
· Thistle blooms, so beautiful, so painful
· a dead animal
· frogs, so tiny and so prolific.
· chipmunk who can perform a standing jump onto the top of my 4' fence.
· Rabbits, so scared, yet so brave, bravely munching on my lettuce, knowing I'm there, watching me, unimpressed.
· Caterpillars become beautiful butterflies after consuming the microorganisms in dung.
· Balance, what is nature’s balance? Tornado’s vs calmness; flooding vs drought, etc. somewhere, is there calm, beautiful weather
Truisms about life and death
· Beauty within what some consider “ugly”
· The many similarities between love and hate, happiness and sadness, anger and kindness.
· Life is contradictions that make sense.