Her skin spoke in calligraphy, generic quotes of life and strength. She resented only one of them. Her freckles now faded, perhaps jaded by the intrusion of ink. Freckles are for kids, she thought, like tricks and treats and happier times. Her hands were covered in truth, fitting loosely over knuckles. This is where her stories were told of aging and waging wars with the world. Touching her face she felt the wind that whittled fine lines on canvass. She heard the words that chiseled deeper. She remembered the sun warming her soul, leaving golden hues on arms and legs. Slowly she traced the scar on her left wrist, caressing it back and forth as if to heal the pain that still remained. Her skin spoke of all she was.
Written for Writing 201 at The Daily Post where we were prompted to write about “skin”in the form of prose as well as adding some internal rhyme.
#9. “Happiness and contentment in your life only happens because you are happy and content with yourself.”
Throughout my twenties and thirties, I had a vision of what would make me happy. It was a perfect world and time. It was just outside the box of reality I lived in, but completely achievable….or so I thought. It was more than just career goals or personal milestones. It was this imaginary idea of what my life should be like. I constantly pined for it . I was always waiting for it. I like to think that I had some kind of epiphany about this but maybe it was just a few hard knocks that forced me to finally free myself of these ridiculous and unnecessary expectations.
As I approached 4O, I found myself again…under the rubble of wishes and good intenti0ns. Wow, I was M.I.A. and didn’t even know it!
Why is it that different things make different people happy? Maybe it’s because it is our own particular state of mind that reacts. Happy things make happy people happy. They don’t work as well with unhappy people. People in my life have suffered similar challenges and losses. Although they all found themselves drowning in despair and self pity, some have not come back up for air. They are still swimming around in the aftermath, hanging on to what happened to them, their only strength is their pain. It’s really easy to be unhappy. It requires no work on our part. Acceptance requires action but believe me, it is worth it in the end. Our own contentment welcomes the laughter, the warmth, and the beautiful stillness.
mishunderstood 