Showing posts with label Leslie Hobbs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Leslie Hobbs. Show all posts

Thursday, January 24, 2008

10 minutes more.....



I once dreamt that all life was black and white.
The good stuff, the right stuff, was white. And that, that should be avoided, the black, was clear and distinct. In the dream, my life was a circle neatly divided and all the right things were to the left; shining and white. Then there was the divide into those things that were the other side. Regret, despair, and disappointment. What a clear and organized dream.
But, as I walk through each day with my eyes wide open, my life is not so easily divided.
Left and Right.
Black and White.
Instead it is a stripe here, abutted to the shadow. The white so narrow – the black so wide. And the texture too … drifting grains of black sand, bleeding into the white; the white fading to black.
Oh how I wish I could return to my orderly dream. That the white was wider, and easily kept to; and the black so thin, it was easily skipped over or brushed away.

Photo by C H Paquette 2007
Writing by Leslie Hobbs 2008

Leslie Hobbs lives in Raleigh North Carolina. By day she works with one and zeros, helping customers to decipher their meaning. By night she types away in her blog, trying to make sense of her world and telling a story or two along the way.

(This is from a 10 minute writing exercise practiced by a small writing group in Raleigh, North Carolina. Each person selects a photograph and has 10 minutes to write something using the photo as a creative prompt.)

Friday, November 30, 2007

more joy of fishes....


Northwoods Waterfall by C H Paquette


Water rushes around my feet. I am anchored to earth by the sheer weight of me and all the thoughts I carry in my head. The strength of the current demands I leave those thoughts behind and give all my concentration to the river. I am not as strong as the boulders just upstream – for they do not tremble in the swift current as I do. But at this moment, as I lose my worries and cares, I am balanced and equal to the water.

Fly casting is a way of meditation for me. Watching the water slip over the boulders, slide down the rock chute and into the pool puts me into a trance. The water as it glides over the rocks – is a sheet of movement – yet fixed in shape. I always shake myself a bit and remind myself to look beyond the water for the fish, hiding inside.

So it is with life. I must learn to lay down my troubles and pay attention to the beauty around me, and be sure it is joy which anchors me to this world, instead of anxiety and fear. I am not as strong as the boulders in the river, yet they too can give way if the current becomes too swift. Doubts and anger dislodge progress and happiness, just as easy as the water dislodges the boulders. I remind myself to look beyond the chaos and see "my fish" hiding inside.

-Story submitted by MitMoi , a writer and blogger and good friend from North Carolina