Scent

Nothing is more memorable than a smell. One scent can be unexpected, momentary and fleeting, yet conjure up a childhood summer beside a lake in the mountains. -Diane Ackerman

Replacement

Would you tell me the truth instead of gorgeous lies?

Would you finally admit the truth you’re seeing someone now?

Would she be just a fling or your fully pledge mistress?

Or she would be in the end my ultimate replacement?  

 

Daffodowndilly

She wore her yellow sun-bonnet,
She wore her greenest gown;
She turned to the south wind
And curtsied up and down.
She turned to the sunlight
And shook her yellow head,
And whispered to her neighbor:
“Winter is dead.”

― A.A. Milne

 

Simple

Oh, that’s me and everything I hope and wish for…

Simple life 

Not based on material things. Quality over quantity. Real versus sham. I rather have one genuine smile than thousands synthetic praises.

Simple mind

Not focus on image and outward appearance but rather keen on what’s inside, the core, the foundation; the real character beneath the facade.

Simple wants, dreams and needs

Freedom to speak, to think, to write, to roam around and do whatever pleases without harming anyone appreciating the beauty of nature and enjoying life to the fullest without exaggeration or being foolish having only what’s needed disregarding excess. 

Simple wishes

Respect Love Harmony Tolerance Peace Freedom Safety Acceptance Equality No matter who we are. 

 

Daily Prompt 

Conventional Wisdom

My mother has a half-brother who being the youngest is only three years older than me. I’ve met him only on three occasions but it was enough to form a strong band which leads to misunderstanding and eventually to a family scandal. The first time we had seen each other was on the funeral of “daddy” their father and my grandfather. I have no clear recollection of that time except for vague fragments which I doubt if they are even real or imagined. I remember my mother losing her voice in the train on the way to wherever the place was. My father said it was a blessing for it unable her to join the shouting match that erupted next to the coffin the moment we arrived. The cause of the disturbance was the wife (a persona non grata with the family) of one of my uncles who not only dared to show up but dared to show up in a red dress which is a big no-no for a funeral. I don’t know anymore what happened next, all that is vivid in my memory is the sawdust that was covering the whole place and seemed to be under my feet wherever I go, inside or outside, in between houses and practically on every open space. Maybe that was imagined too. I was five years old.

The second time I saw him I was already in junior high and studying in the capital city where they moved and still live. They said he was a drug addict, a drunkard, a gambler who was not able to hold a decent job for longer than a few months but to me, he was and remains one of the kindest people I’ve ever met. He was fun, attentive, sweet and I’ve never seen him drunk. If upon my arrival I happened to catch him playing mahjong, he will stand right away to greet me and will never return to the table for the duration of my stay. He will focus his whole attention on me instead and will go out of his way to make my stay unforgettable. I must have been naive because they said I was the only one who could influence him but to me, it didn’t look that way. He simply was accommodating.

He even drove his bike in the rain to get me from school, put me in front and biked all the way back singing “Nothing Gonna Change My Love For You.” After his work, he often brought home hamburger and coke for me and will only get up in the morning if I was the one who was going to wake him up and make his coffee. He held my hand while eating breakfast, smiling but saying nothing. He stood guard at the door of the communal bathroom/toilet so I could wash undisturbed. One evening when we were walking around the neighborhood to pass the time he said one day before he dies he will say something important to me, but he never did say what it was. There was one thing he didn’t like and avoided doing at all cost, that was being alone with me inside the house. When it happened, he always goes outside and sits on the front steps. He told me it was getting hot inside and going outside was the right thing to do. He never offered further explanation than that.

The last time we’ve been together was when I was applying for a visa to go abroad. I was in my first year in college and already married by then. He quit his job and helped me with the procedure, often taking my place in the queue so I could eat or go to the toilet. I didn’t understand the reasons why, there was nothing special occurred that could lead to his mother supported by his brothers throwing us out in the middle of the night, but it happened. All I can remember is what my uncle said while picking his clothes off the ground. He told his family:

“There is nothing wrong with falling in love with a family member. In fact, if those holy men in your bible didn’t marry and slept with their brothers, sisters, sons and daughters, fathers and mothers we will not be here arguing.”

I rented my own place after that. He came with me and my mother together with a handful of people that either support his belief or just didn’t mind. Aside from putting his arms around me once in a while and telling me encrypted words about love and sins in general, my uncle did nothing untoward to me or to anyone. The family is wrong with their assumptions that there was something inappropriate between us. Not to my knowledge anyway.

He did profess his love for me years after that, but not in person. He was working as a contractor in the middle east that time. He sent me cards and letters after letters asking me to consider running away with him to a place where nobody knows us so we can start anew. Of course, I declined. I told him not only his surname is my middle name, I don’t feel that way about him. The letters and cards slowly trickled away till they stopped coming. I never heard from him again.

I remember asking my Iranian girlfriend who married her first cousin, a practice which not only preferred but encourage in their culture if on judgment day we’re going to be tried as a person or by religion because what she did marrying a family member is considered a mortal sin in my world and have to pay for it when the time comes. And since we have only one God that differs but by names only, how that the same God would punish different individuals who committed the same crime which by the other culture and religion is normal and acceptable but to the other scandalous and wrong?  She has no answer.

DiscoverWP

Devastation

“When we are blinded by our frustration and devastation we become oblivious to the life preserver floating inches away from us. If we take a minute to think positive, utilize our faith, and become proactive, we are able to think rationally and clearly. We then will recognize the life preserver which will keep us afloat and help us get to our destination.”

― Lindsey Rietzsch

Oversight

The Mistake

With the mistake your life goes in reverse.
Now you can see exactly what you did
Wrong yesterday and wrong the day before
And each mistake leads back to something worse

And every nuance of your hypocrisy
Towards yourself, and every excuse
Stands solidly on the perspective lines
And there is perfect visibility.

What an enlightenment. The colonnade
Rolls past on either side. You needn’t move.
The statues of your errors brush your sleeve.
You watch the tale turn back — and you’re dismayed.

And this dismay at this, this big mistake
Is made worse by the sight of all those who
Knew all along where these mistakes would lead —
Those frozen friends who watched the crisis break.

Why didn’t they say? Oh, but they did indeed —
Said with a murmur when the time was wrong
Or by a mild refusal to assent
Or told you plainly but you would not heed.

Yes, you can hear them now. It hurts. It’s worse
Than any sneer from any enemy.
Take this dismay. Lay claim to this mistake.
Look straight along the lines of this reverse.”

― James Fenton, Out of Danger

Daily Prompt 

Privacy

In this day and age is there still such a thing as privacy?

Daily Prompt

Graceful

Graceful  sculptures outside Almuñécar police station.

Exposure

“I’ve lived through some terrible things in my life, some of which actually happened.”

~ Mark Twain

Daily Prompt 

“As I Began to Love Myself”

As I began to love myself I found that anguish and emotional suffering
are only warning signs that I was living against my own truth. Today, I know, this is “AUTHENTICITY”.

As I began to love myself I understood how much it can offend somebody
As I try to force my desires on this person, even though I knew the time
was not right and the person was not ready for it, and even though this
person was me. Today I call it “RESPECT”.

As I began to love myself I stopped craving for a different life,
and I could see that everything that surrounded me was inviting me to grow.
Today I call it “MATURITY”.

As I began to love myself I understood that at any circumstance,
I am in the right place at the right time, and everything happens
at the exactly right moment. So I could be calm.
Today I call it “SELF-CONFIDENCE”.

As I began to love myself I quit stealing my own time,
and I stopped designing huge projects for the future.
Today, I only do what brings me joy and happiness, things I love to do
and that make my heart cheer, and I do them in my own way and in
my own rhythm. Today I call it “SIMPLICITY”.

As I began to love myself I freed myself of anything that is no good for
my health – food, people, things, situations, and everything that drew
me down and away from myself. At first I called this attitude
a healthy egoism. Today I know it is “LOVE OF ONESELF”.

As I began to love myself I quit trying to always be right, and ever since
I was wrong less of the time. Today I discovered that is “MODESTY”.

As I began to love myself I refused to go on living in the past and worry
about the future. Now, I only live for the moment, where everything
is happening. Today I live each day, day by day, and I call it “FULFILLMENT”.

As I began to love myself I recognized that my mind can disturb me
and it can make me sick. But As I connected it to my heart, my
mind became a valuable ally. Today I call this
connection “WISDOM OF THE HEART”.

We no longer need to fear arguments, confrontations or any kind of problems
with ourselves or others. Even stars collide, and out of their crashing
new worlds are born. Today I know THAT IS “LIFE”!

~ by Charlie Chaplin

For The Free Spirited Females

This is for the gentle goddesses with watery, empathic hearts, who ooze with oodles of compassion, eager to soothe another’s suffering.

This is for the luscious ladies with restless spirits who can’t stay in one place for long, because our souls are winged, always longing for adventure.

 Yes, this is just for us:

The free-spirited females with fiercely sensitive hearts.

We are a balmy breeze, casually caressing arms lovingly, suddenly here, suddenly there, then suddenly gone.

We are a thousand grains of precious pink sand, slowly slipping through soft fingertips, one by one.

We can never be contained because we aren’t meant to be.

We are born to ride the wild winds of passion, surf the turbulent oceans of despair, and relentlessly explore the great vastness of this crazy world—until our bodies collapse in ecstatic exhaustion.

We understand deeply that life is a heartbreakingly beautiful series of goodbyes, hellos, triumphs and disappointments and we feel most alive in the midst of transformation, courageously shedding our old skin to be birthed again, raw and new.

We are are well-versed in letting go, able to boldly exhale and swiftly set fire to the past, painstakingly gathering the ashen wisdom to build a more abundant future.

We are phoenixes, falcons, eagles and butterflies.

We are light and airy, yet never lacking depth.

We are carefree and sparkly, but our effervescence actually emanates from caring so deeply, from feeling the world’s pain, happiness, love, sadness and struggle wildly pulsate within our chests, day in and day out.

We are spongy emotional barometers, picking up on another’s mood immediately, sensing anxiety, anger, grief, frustration and jealousy. Feeling it so damn intensely that we sometimes suffocate.

We crave alone time, solo adventures, secret places and quiet spaces because the world can seem so scary and overwhelming that we wonder if it could, in fact, swallow us entirely in one single gulp.

We love wholly, compassionately and completely—but never possessively.

We have to fly away sometimes, darting out in the velvety black of night because we know that by setting ourselves free, we can set others free too.

We deeply respect our femininity, listening closely to the whispering wisdom of our intuition, the mystical murmurs of our ancestors and the primal pulse of nature.

We feel most alive outside, wings fully spanned, feeling the firm ground beneath our feet, welcoming the fiercest winds to whirl through our wispy hair.

We are fierce warriors, forces to be reckoned with—precisely because we are so sensitive.

My gentle and free-spirited sisters, I hear your feathery roar.

Let us spread our wings and soar.

Let us fly long and fast and hard.

Let us fly unapologetically.

Into the incredible lives we are meant to live.

Let us vow now.

To never turn our backs on the wise contents.

Of our fabulously free-spirited.

And fantastically sensitive souls.

– Author: Sarah Harvey

Exquisite

…pain

…tormenting

…agonizing

…torturous 

…excruciating 

…intense

…agony

betrayed by own blood

abandoned 

wounds keep bleeding

they will never heal.

Daily Prompt