Too often, the wider sweep of life brushes away the details which matter. This is not to say, however, that those details cease to exist—it is just that many of us stumble through our days without actively noticing them. Today, it is snowing, here at the gateway to the Alps. Yesterday, the flakes were small, minute crystals, barely a whisper to them, each latching to a fellow as it landed and forming tiny, hopeful drifts, banding together to form a miniature icescape of their own; gentle unto the earth they fell, seemingly picking a precise spot to land, to merge and form something far grander. This morning, the flakes were larger and unexpected and they already had a foundation upon which to build.
This is beautiful. I never know where you are going to take us, and I'm always glad I follow along to the end. I swear I could smell the salty air reading this, and it made me miss home.
Thank you so much for this, I think if a piece of writing can inspire an emotion like missing home, then I've done my work. I'm very glad to have you here.
Many thanks, I'm really happy you enjoyed it and let me know, that's the magic of this space, that feel of community. Talking to people, commenting, replying, and reading has been such a breath of calm compared to other locales I used to frequent on the internet!
Many thanks! I'm really glad you liked it. Sometimes, I like to weave real places into my stories. Not always, but when I do it often feels like a meditation on that place.
Thanks for the new word! I am part Scots and have always wanted to visit your part of the world, but I haven't thus far. People watching is my favorite activity. I'm a lifeguard at an aquatic rehab facility attached to a local hospital. People ask me all the time how I deal with the boredom of lifeguarding. I never know quite what to say, aside from a simple "I'm never bored," which is true but grossly inadequate. People are endlessly fascinating, appalling, amusing, unbelievable, unexpected, beautiful, terrible. Swimmers ignore lifeguards. They carry on private conversations, political conversations, relate the latest gossip, talk about their families, their health, their affairs, their marriages, their hopes and fears, their history. I watch people in ever kind of body with every degree of disability, injury, cognition, and mental health status. We are an amazing species. I'm never tired of observing us. How could anyone be bored?
How could anyone be bored indeed?! I love every word you've shared here. It sounds like you have an ideal job for people watching (and listening), the fact you are ignored is such a powerful cloak of invisibility! The longer series of novels I'm working on has this idea, of how amazing and varied we are, and how endless the fascination can be, at its core.
Many thanks for sharing this, I really enjoyed reading your comment.
The constant, sometimes unseen, flow of transformation, as earth changes rock to sand is so fundamental, like the rhythm of the sea and seasons...like our bodies, too. As for me, I love the pure sensuous feel of my bare feet pressing into warm sand, the way it nestles us in and molds itself around our bodies...like snow, without the danger.
Oh I love this, thank you! I agree completely too, although I am one of those strange people who will sometimes take off boots and socks to feel snow on my toes too! Pressing feet into warm sand (or, dare I say, mud?!), is one of life's great pleasures.
Haha! Perhaps?! Some days I really miss my Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, the two-volume one!
I'd love to know if there is a connection between the Orcadian pattle and the word pootle, too. Language is such a wondrous thing, always growing, always throwing new things before us.
This is beautiful. I never know where you are going to take us, and I'm always glad I follow along to the end. I swear I could smell the salty air reading this, and it made me miss home.
Thank you so much for this, I think if a piece of writing can inspire an emotion like missing home, then I've done my work. I'm very glad to have you here.
Enjoyed this - and getting a snapshot of the unassuming woman at the center of it.
Many thanks, I'm really happy you enjoyed it and let me know, that's the magic of this space, that feel of community. Talking to people, commenting, replying, and reading has been such a breath of calm compared to other locales I used to frequent on the internet!
Yes! I’m new here and the experience has already been encouraging and invigorating in my first week.
Beautiful!
Many thanks! I'm really glad you liked it. Sometimes, I like to weave real places into my stories. Not always, but when I do it often feels like a meditation on that place.
I understand what you mean. For me, it's like the place has seeped into my soul and leaks out into my stories.
I think so much of what is 'real' does leak out into stories--often, I don't even realise it until redrafting or editing, later.
Thanks for the new word! I am part Scots and have always wanted to visit your part of the world, but I haven't thus far. People watching is my favorite activity. I'm a lifeguard at an aquatic rehab facility attached to a local hospital. People ask me all the time how I deal with the boredom of lifeguarding. I never know quite what to say, aside from a simple "I'm never bored," which is true but grossly inadequate. People are endlessly fascinating, appalling, amusing, unbelievable, unexpected, beautiful, terrible. Swimmers ignore lifeguards. They carry on private conversations, political conversations, relate the latest gossip, talk about their families, their health, their affairs, their marriages, their hopes and fears, their history. I watch people in ever kind of body with every degree of disability, injury, cognition, and mental health status. We are an amazing species. I'm never tired of observing us. How could anyone be bored?
How could anyone be bored indeed?! I love every word you've shared here. It sounds like you have an ideal job for people watching (and listening), the fact you are ignored is such a powerful cloak of invisibility! The longer series of novels I'm working on has this idea, of how amazing and varied we are, and how endless the fascination can be, at its core.
Many thanks for sharing this, I really enjoyed reading your comment.
The constant, sometimes unseen, flow of transformation, as earth changes rock to sand is so fundamental, like the rhythm of the sea and seasons...like our bodies, too. As for me, I love the pure sensuous feel of my bare feet pressing into warm sand, the way it nestles us in and molds itself around our bodies...like snow, without the danger.
Oh I love this, thank you! I agree completely too, although I am one of those strange people who will sometimes take off boots and socks to feel snow on my toes too! Pressing feet into warm sand (or, dare I say, mud?!), is one of life's great pleasures.
Thanks again!
Pattle is a new one for me - does that mean ‘prattle’ is to press down with words, lol
Haha! Perhaps?! Some days I really miss my Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, the two-volume one!
I'd love to know if there is a connection between the Orcadian pattle and the word pootle, too. Language is such a wondrous thing, always growing, always throwing new things before us.