Category Archives for InkTober

InkTober: Day 16 – Wet

One of the things I miss in my life is traveling. Especially the opportunity it gives to visit places with sandy beaches and open water coloured in beautiful shades of blues and greens. I prefer swimming in saltwater because I don’t like the lingering chemical smell of chlorine or the way it dries the moisture from my skin. Instead of being confined by a concrete swimming pool, I’ve always enjoyed the feeling of floating in the waters of an ocean or sea that seem to fall far beyond the horizon.

I loved the feeling of being just another tiny speck of life as I was tossed by endless rolling waves. I miss standing chest-deep in salty water. Turning my back to the approaching foam of waves and nervously anticipating when they will knock me off my feet and push me closer to the shore. I long to bob up and down under brilliant blue skies. My wet waterlogged body made buoyant by the salt in the water and the skin on my fingers wrinkling; signalling that I have played in the warm water for too long.

I want my body to experience all those wonderful sensations again; soon.

InkTober - Day 16 - Wet

 

InkTober: Day 15 – Relax

Relaxing is hard work for me, even when I try to find ways to make it easy. I find it hard to relax, not because I live a busy fast-paced life, but because my body seems to have forgotten how. It’s often difficult to immediately position myself in a way that is comfortable. Sometimes, because my pain levels are high and my body is tense as a result, moving suddenly or too much agitates my already uncomfortable body and may increase my pain. Even with meditation or other mindfulness activities, I can’t easily relax my mind either. It bounces from thought to thought about when I will be better or simply productive again.

Relaxing is the last thing in the world that should be hard work, but for me it is.

InkTober - Day 15 - Relax

 

InkTober: Day 14 – Tree

I grew up in a big busy city, but always lived in neighbourhoods that had parks and playgrounds with trees nearby. When I was in my teens, I enjoyed sitting under a huge old tree in a park close to my home. I would go there when I needed to escape my family for a while, with a book to read or a notebook to write in. During those years, I spent so much time sitting under that tree, it’s a miracle I didn’t sprout roots or branches of my own. The cover of that tree’s branches became my personal time-out place. It became a place I went to when I felt any jumble of upsetting emotions, and I always walked away feeling calmer.

I don’t know if that tree is still standing in the grassy green field of that park. If it is, I hope others have benefited from the cover of its branches, and still do, the way I did.

InkTober - Day 14 - Tree