Writing Club Week 11

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[ira2]

Writing Club Week 11

Writers, unite - again! There's no way we can possibly top the Week 10 thread, but let's write away and see what happens

First one to respond to this week's thread sets the topic.

Join in, write, have fun!



The previous Writing Club entries are here:

Week 10: http://www.themudflats.net/forum/index.php/topic,6255.0.html  (BEST EVAR!!)

Week 9: http://www.themudflats.net/forum/index.php/topic,6052.0.html

Week 8: http://www.themudflats.net/forum/index.php/topic,5867.0.html

Week 7: http://www.themudflats.net/forum/index.php/topic,5724.0.html

Week 6: http://www.themudflats.net/forum/index.php/topic,5325.0.html

Week 5: http://www.themudflats.net/forum/index.php/topic,5195.0.html

Week 4: http://www.themudflats.net/forum/index.php/topic,5108.0.html

Week 3: http://www.themudflats.net/forum/index.php/topic,5022.0.html

Week 2: http://www.themudflats.net/forum/index.php/topic,4809.0.html

Week 1: http://www.themudflats.net/forum/index.php/topic,4675.0.html

[daMamma]

nature?

[ira2]

Aaaand the subject is... NATURE!

Thank you, daMamma 

[daMamma]

well I guess I should get to writing something then! 

[ira2]

Yes you should 

[betzy]

Nature is the re-energizing power in my world.  Whatever nature provides, rain, lightning, snow, sunshine, breath-taking rainbows – they all create excitement in me.

It takes all the elements produced to enhance our surroundings.  The lovely flowers that grace the rooms for the better part of the year in our household come from our efforts that combine with what Mother Nature provides.  Even the colorful fruits and vegetables that remain in the kitchen and dining area and are brought from our own garden lend color and excitement to our daily living.

Sometimes when either recovering from an illness (not many of those in our household) or just feeling a bit sluggish, a trip to the yard and the out-of-doors can cause symptoms to fade away.

Try as I might I cannot capture the incredible sunsets from our mountain home.  Maybe some things Nature rewards us with are just not meant to be a permanent record for our keeping.

Sitting at the computer which faces the yard, beyond the fence that keeps the coyotes, wild pigs and raccoons out away from us, still allows me to see those animals skitter across the grass beyond, amble down the driveway, not at all concerned about being accosted by us.  The fence also keeps the squirrels, both tree and ground squirrels, as well as the occasionally sited gopher close enough for me to see them share the big flat rock by the rose bed with the quail. 

Nature is so generous and affords me this wonderful indoor and outdoor collage of daily entertainment and changes the scene far more frequently than is necessary to keep me very interested in my surroundings.

[daMamma]

Only 10 minutes?  Really could have used more time.  However the exercise did put me in a better mood.  Here's what I got. 


The smell of snow approaching, fresh and clean
Still unseen

The white fluffiness softly falling, silence sleep
Piling deep

The moonlight bouncing, hue of blue
Sparkles new

The first light is coming, dawn’s golden ink
Glistens pink

The happiness of giggling, girl and boy
Loving joy

The wet mittens falling, red cheeks ‘n noses
Spring roses


With more time I could have perfected, (LOL)  I hate showing off sloppy poetry. 
<daMamma is anal retentive about her writing>

[LettersFromEurope]

I look with envy on pictures of Nature outside the windows of my fellow writers. I look out of my window and beyond a stamp sized damp patch I see the next wall. Closed in and small the space, my plants, the sage, lavender and lemon balm, hardly have space to breathe and so do I and so do I. The view is not worth a window and certainly not a photo.

Where I will soon move, although beside a busier road, a bigger patch of earth is attached. While her husband created sculptures, the previous owner of my future abode, created her garden. In the spring, after a winterlong sleep, it will come to life and speak to me of anothers happiness and art.

When I move in I will add messengers of Nature that speak to me. Herbs and Roses they are, for my well-being and to soothe my body and soul. A witches garden I wish to have.

My planned Nature beckons and it will have to suffice, to soothe this modern woman, surrounded by steel and cement and help her to dream of a time and place where Nature may give and withold.

[InterestedPerson]

The reality of nature comforted me since I was 7 or 8 and could run away to the tameracks and evergreens, a den of my own, only a block from the house.  Tarzan or Collar would go with me.  I could sulk, twine their long hair and they would smell the pine needles, or maybe other animals.

Later, Dr. Kosman said that when he was depressed, he would go to the ocean and tell the waves
to change course until he was re-connected with the real world.  That practice, and Kierkegaard's
idea of the "knight of faith" --acting as though the best would happen, dispite discouragement---
were what lives in my heart out of that whole year of Philosophy.

The weather's changes, seeing the snow and stripped trees in the heat of summer, now looking
at the ice and knowing the asphalt will be  hot and smelling in 6 months; looking at my dear
cats, knowing that I will hold their dead bodies and put them in the ground in my garden;
that all the interconnected change is neutral, part of the wheel of life....this reminds me that my
internal weather of thoughts, wishes, regrets, are just as neutral, and just as changing.

The beauty of nature sustains me. I am glad that my years on earth have been sufficient to love the
delicate opal colors of winter as much as the brilliant green of new leaves, the determined tiny ants
as much as the smell of the maple leaves I kicked when I was 12.

I hope that I can welcome the transition to another energy state as much as I loved the stretch of
strong muscles, just another neutral change of mass and energy in nature.

[ira2]

Naturally, it's only natural for a naturalistic natural to frolic in Nature. It's in his nature to do so. If he frolics in shark-infested waters, a naturalist might then get to document a bit of natural selection between the shark and the natural. That's in the nature of things, where sharks and naked people are concerned. It's well-documented in natural science, which is where naturalists generally hang out. And unless the natural's naturalization process was completed before he started frolicking, he'll likely die a foreigner. Probably a Finn. Finns get naked with Mother Nature a lot. They're naturals at that. With sharks, not so much. Texans, on the other hand, are naturally selected to produce natural gas. It's all the chili they eat. But they don't put sharks in the chili, so what can I tell you? It's a weird world.

[Irishgirl]

lol Ira.... 

[Jaime from Wasilla]

Nature - WTF?! As if there can be anything, anywhere that is NOT nature?  I mean, if birds can build nests and foxes can dig dens, why is that different from people building houses? The whole universe is nature, from the mountaintops of the Himalayas to downtown Chicago to the farthest quasar burning at the distant edge of reality as we know it.

Don't get me wrong, I like the sound of songbirds and breezes whispering through the forest.  But I am tired of the disdain for the sound of auto horns and rubber on wet highways.  We can't live outside of nature, it is all nature. Including the spider that is happily building its web in the dusty corner of your uncleaned house. I am certain the field mouse that is making a home in the unusable corner cupboard in your kitchen prefers the forced air heat and unlimited food supply you provide over freezing in a hole under the big cottonwood stump in the back yard.

I will allow that processed food is unnatural, and probably not food. But just because humans have made it or altered it doesn't remove a thing from nature. I mean, stars go super nova and galaxies collide.  get over your delusional fantasy that reality is some sort of pastoral eden and learn to find God where you are. It's ALL alive, and isn't THAT interesting?

[daMamma]

I hadn't done this writing topic before.  Never really bothered to do more than just browse briefly as I wandered on past.  (please pardon me     )

The various writing styles here are amazing, and I find myself really really enjoying each piece over and over again.  Every time I read a particular post, there is something new within the words not seen before.  So cool. 

A great big thank you to whom ever thought up doing this.  (and a big "shame on you" to myself for not paying attention sooner!)

[Forty Watt]

For the Scots, it matters little what else you do with your life as long as you look after your children.  You might be a drunken, no-good skellum, but, as long as you care for your bairns all will be forgiven.  By the same token, even a candidate for canonization will be vilified if adequate parental involvement is perceived to be lacking.  “Ah dinna care what you say about him, he disnae look after his bairns.”  There is no greater condemnation.

Which brings me to Father Nature.  What’s up with this guy?  Where is he anyway?   Did he just walk out and leave Mother Nature alone to tend to their exponentially increasing brood?  If the pair of them had just stopped at the mountains and rivers, the flora and fauna, the dew on the rose, the breathe of Spring on the breeze and such like, I could have accepted his absence more easily.  They had, after all, produced offspring with innate and flexible intelligence, uniquely equipped to interact with each other and adapt to changing circumstances.  Father Nature’s job, I could have argued, was done. 

But the minute they produced that first little, hairy homo neanderthalensis, it became a whole different kettle of humans.  Expecting Mother Nature to deal with the aftermath of that creative endeavor without help is simply unforgivable.  For heaven’s sake, there are 6.80 billion homines sapientes on earth, and not one of them even half as sapient as they think they are.  What’s a mother to do?

The more I thought about it, the madder I got.  Somebody needs to find Father Nature.  So I googled him.  Turns out he’s a busy fellow.  He’s got several landscaping businesses, a particularly nice one in Tacoma WA, and he’s patented a squirrel-proof bird feeder.  So, in a sense, he is looking after some of his bairns.  He owns a lot of restaurants, though, so no problems with slaughtering his greatⁿgrandchildren in order to make a buck. But it’s hard to get a sense of Father Nature himself.  Who is he?  What is his world-view, his psychological makeup, his ideology?

Then, I found it.  There he was, Father Nature, the biologist, engendering fear, warning us, in the direst terms, that the world is on the brink of destruction.  Does this sound familiar?  All the time he’s out there making money, he turns a blind eye to the unmitigated disaster he has wrought by his own actions and then has the gall to stand up and pontificate about what should be done.   Father Nature is a Republican!

If he dare say one thing about family values, I won’t be responsible for my actions.

PS The writing didn't take more that 10 minutes but the googling did.

[ira2]

What daMamma said!!    

[Irishgirl]

Liked that 40W....your not as dim as your wattage suggests. 

[the problem child]

Wow, Forty! I'm guessing this is something you may have had on your mind for a bit? It's a few chops and tweaks away from the sort of piece that could go viral if released on the right breeze, IMO.

[Forty Watt]

Liked that 40W....your not as dim as your wattage suggests. 

I'm conserving energy. 

[Irishgirl]

Can't think of a comeback...

You win!!

[0whole1]

Sitting in a basement,
Windowless, a chair before a desk.
Am I within or without?

(Beetles in the walls,
Ants on the carpet,
and mold under that.)

And I -- do I not live
And do things not live in me? And around me --
in my trash and the caves I build,
in the air pushed in and out,
from me to my neighbor to my begonia and back,
a throbbing heartbeat deep inside my lungs?

---

And on a hair's tip a flea, and a family of fleas,
And on a wide penninsula, a city of men.