Week 7 Topic
Light streamed in from windows lining a never-ending hallway; it was dark otherwise, an impenetrable darkness that was not malicious, but held secrets waiting to be discovered. A hand fingered along the walls, trailing along the smooth side. Stepping into the glow, a face peered into the window. The light intensified into a vivid recollection, seemingly happening again in the moment.
A swirl of memories and experiences coalesced within me and without in a wave of emotion. I felt everything and nothing, burning inside with confusion and anguish. I remembered how unnatural it felt to sit in a chair and I had sunk to the hardwood floor to drown in my sobbings, the wretched thing that I was. I held myself for there was no one to hold me, no one to confide in. There were good days and bad days and all the nights were monstrous. All I did was cry into the night …
Fingers dragged along the walls, melting into blackness. The glow behind faded and dimmed away, the memory dead and gone. Small steps forward into darkness, following the glow of another window, another memory.
Sunlight, it was a bright summer day. Laughter and playing filled the air. Delicious grapes. Book reading. Teaching and learning. A new adventure into the unknown. A terrible cry ripped through the fabric of recollection as time sped forward whilst trying to hold this moment in tact. Flickering out of focus like a bad reception on an old antenna tv, the memory was too fresh, too raw, too close to evil.
Step forward, step forward into times that it cannot touch. Press onward ...
The light in the window flickered out like a broken bulb, the sound of crumbling stone echoed behind. She stepped forward, and forward, and forward. With each new window, a memory and as she passed, to her left, to her right, they dimmed out, no longer existing. Bad mistakes to her left, a broken upbringing to her right, her beloved cats to her left, happy chat room days to her right. She sought a time that didn’t make her cry, a time where this pain didn’t exist. As she traveled forward physically, she journeyed back into her past. Early adulthood, it wasn’t enough, though it began to slowly paint a picture. And as she journeyed forward to go backward, a single word kept pinging sweetly against her heart: innocence. Richness and depth also spoke to her, urging her towards her goal. Some memories remained bad and she was glad to see them go, some were good, so dearly good to remember, though as she passed, they disappeared, too. It was a search for happiness, for goodness, for clarity, and peace.
She heard it first, the beautiful sound of melody that reached her ears. She stopped, almost stumbling forward as she felt it in her chest. For once, it wasn’t anguish, but beauty midst the ashes; the depth that she had so blindly sought after for quite a long time. It nourished her insides, a balm for all the charring that had transpired. She closed her eyes and breathed it in. It had been so long since she had enjoyed a song like this. The sound of what seemed to be a whale called out and she opened her eyes to stare at a door, the end of her journey. Reaching out, she turned the knob and stepped inside. She had to crane her neck upwards to see the source of the sound -- a brachiosaurus that peered down at her. This was the epitome of her childhood, where no demons and darkness existed. Beyond the dinosaur was a familiar and towering stone structure, home to a royal family of lions. This was her origin of happiness, where she was from and had been a part of for years and years until life had demanded other things, a price to be paid. This wasn’t a land of forgetfulness, but one of rememberance. Putting things on shelves where they belong, others to bury deep in the ground, and others to light on fire and watch them burn. But here in this place, she could be a child again. Going forward beyond this point, she could build something better, something stronger and go forward with both the innocence of a child and the wisdom of an adult.
A swirl of memories and experiences coalesced within me and without in a wave of emotion. I felt everything and nothing, burning inside with confusion and anguish. I remembered how unnatural it felt to sit in a chair and I had sunk to the hardwood floor to drown in my sobbings, the wretched thing that I was. I held myself for there was no one to hold me, no one to confide in. There were good days and bad days and all the nights were monstrous. All I did was cry into the night …
Fingers dragged along the walls, melting into blackness. The glow behind faded and dimmed away, the memory dead and gone. Small steps forward into darkness, following the glow of another window, another memory.
Sunlight, it was a bright summer day. Laughter and playing filled the air. Delicious grapes. Book reading. Teaching and learning. A new adventure into the unknown. A terrible cry ripped through the fabric of recollection as time sped forward whilst trying to hold this moment in tact. Flickering out of focus like a bad reception on an old antenna tv, the memory was too fresh, too raw, too close to evil.
Step forward, step forward into times that it cannot touch. Press onward ...
The light in the window flickered out like a broken bulb, the sound of crumbling stone echoed behind. She stepped forward, and forward, and forward. With each new window, a memory and as she passed, to her left, to her right, they dimmed out, no longer existing. Bad mistakes to her left, a broken upbringing to her right, her beloved cats to her left, happy chat room days to her right. She sought a time that didn’t make her cry, a time where this pain didn’t exist. As she traveled forward physically, she journeyed back into her past. Early adulthood, it wasn’t enough, though it began to slowly paint a picture. And as she journeyed forward to go backward, a single word kept pinging sweetly against her heart: innocence. Richness and depth also spoke to her, urging her towards her goal. Some memories remained bad and she was glad to see them go, some were good, so dearly good to remember, though as she passed, they disappeared, too. It was a search for happiness, for goodness, for clarity, and peace.
She heard it first, the beautiful sound of melody that reached her ears. She stopped, almost stumbling forward as she felt it in her chest. For once, it wasn’t anguish, but beauty midst the ashes; the depth that she had so blindly sought after for quite a long time. It nourished her insides, a balm for all the charring that had transpired. She closed her eyes and breathed it in. It had been so long since she had enjoyed a song like this. The sound of what seemed to be a whale called out and she opened her eyes to stare at a door, the end of her journey. Reaching out, she turned the knob and stepped inside. She had to crane her neck upwards to see the source of the sound -- a brachiosaurus that peered down at her. This was the epitome of her childhood, where no demons and darkness existed. Beyond the dinosaur was a familiar and towering stone structure, home to a royal family of lions. This was her origin of happiness, where she was from and had been a part of for years and years until life had demanded other things, a price to be paid. This wasn’t a land of forgetfulness, but one of rememberance. Putting things on shelves where they belong, others to bury deep in the ground, and others to light on fire and watch them burn. But here in this place, she could be a child again. Going forward beyond this point, she could build something better, something stronger and go forward with both the innocence of a child and the wisdom of an adult.