Do You Have a Fish Tank?

Can you not completely lose yourself in it? 

Gaze for hours.

I do.

When I look at it from the top, it appears so much smaller than its 90,000 gallons. Seems sparse since it is deep, and only some fish swim along the surface. Seems like it's the predators. And there's a whole social system within it as well.

Somewhat of an eavesdropper on their lives,
I can see this.
Everyone needs to behave, including me.

Some fish school. 

Angel Fish swim in pairs. 

Snappers seem to lead solitary lives.

Imagine a gigantic tank filled with life and color and textures. Then imagine slipping into its peacefulness. Some approach cautiously then flit off. Others nip my fingers anticipating food, or my flesh.

Five stingrays fight for my attention.
Suck my mask trying to kiss me.
Things brush past.

It is like playing in their secret world. 

Not mine. 

Intimate.

Like taking a Caribbean vacation. 

Without leaving. 

Soundless.

It's feeling like you are the luckiest person in the world. 

Trifextra: Hummingbird Lust

This is Trifecta’s cheeky challenge for this week. They’re asking for a 33-word response to the following snippet:

The first time I saw. . .

Of course there’s a catch: all of our 33 words must be one syllable each. They are giving us 5 words so that’s 33 from us, for a grand total of 38 words.

**********************

rthu.com

The first time I saw…

the bird who hummed

it swept me off with brisk wing beats

i was mad

for its

jewel toned throat,

rust coined weight,

and long limbed nib

that sipped a rose like wine.

********************** 

I’m obsessed with hummingbirds and can watch them flit and drink for hours. The Ruby-Throated Hummingbird is indigenous to the state of Indiana (and Illinois for that matter) where my prettiest flowers grow. Like Cardinals, the male is more beautiful and colorful than the female. I'll give them that...

Stream of Consciousness Sunday: A Painter's Palette

I’ve said this, probably, ad nauseum but I don’t care!!! It’s Sunday and on Sundays I write stream of conscious style writing hosted by Jana. Letting it rip in a socially acceptable way feels so good to me. So we aim to write for five minutes then hit publish. No fuss, no muss, just our unedited word filling the space. So there you have the rules.

Today’s totally optional prompt is:

What color defines you?

Smithsonianmag.com

If I were a painter with an artist’s palette, I would squish a beautiful light blue onto it. Then right next to it, I would squeeze out some green. Green and blue have been my favorite colors my entire life.

But if you took the paintbrush and started mixing the two, though not carefully, the color that I react to the most appears. It’s the color of the Caribbean Sea, a piece of sea glass, the stormy sky sometimes and my favorite color of eyes.

This light shade of blue, blue/green, is the color of eyes that I love to look into very deeply. When I look into the eyes of someone, it’s like looking through a pane of glass. Sometimes I squint to see in further. And if those eyes are blue, I feel a stir, like I can see through even deeper.

My eyes are blue and for some reason, I feel a connection when I find those of the same color or a mix of blue/green and even just green. I feel like mindedness and I’m not even sure why.

The color of the Caribbean Sea reminds me to breath in, relax, enjoy the moment, not fuss.

Sea glass reminds me of beautiful moments and memories. Something to turn over in my hand. To hang onto.

Stormy skies remind me to stay safely inside my home or within myself when something is brewing. Peaceful, somehow. I know from childhood what a sky tinged with green means.

Everything about the variety of shades created from those two colors speaks to me.

What's Annoying Me? You Asked...

It is that time again. It’s Sunday and one of the reasons I love Sundays besides reading the “big” paper is stream of consciousness writing over at Jana’s Thinking Place.

I truly can’t believe NaBloPoMo is almost completed. Thursday!!! Woo Hoo! It has been challenging blogging everyday but especially for the last week. Let’s finish strong though team Yeah Write!

Today’s (totally optional) prompt: I’m Annoyed By…

This is something that comes pretty easily to me. I mean it’s easy to find something that annoys me. So for the next five minutes, you’re going to hear it. Then I will not edit or fix it. Here goes nothing…

If I am being totally honest with you, I will admit that I’m annoyed, and not just a little, with my kids. They’ve only been home for nine days, one hour and 36 minutes but who’s counting and it’s been about long enough. They are in full comfort mode which means most of the initial charm has warn off… on both ends.

Now my kids aren’t toddlers or middle schoolers or even high schoolers. They are grown up big people with grown up personalities including stubborn streaks and all around feistiness. They are used to living with 20 something’s and we are used to living with 40 something’s (okay, I’m fibbing a little here). And that’s a big age swing of rational brain cells.

Patience and tempers have become a little shorter. The house is much messier. There’s crap all over the place and no one feels like doing anything about it. The easy going-ness of the first few days is only a glimmer. The there’s the bickering!

As much as we love and adore them, we are longing for our quiet life back, just the two of us.

I would like some semblance of order. I need to stop ordering takeout. I want to stop doing laundry and picking up after everyone.

I want to go back to being the patient, kind and cheerleading mommy who’s just a phone call away.

And I need to rest up because they’re coming back in 2 weeks and 5 days and it will be for much longer than a week. That will take extreme mental preparation. I still remember last year.

I just asked my daughter if she enjoyed being home. She said it’s never long enough and I hugged her saying I felt the same way ;-).

Living Temporarily "Inside The Box"

It’s Stream of Consciousness Sunday at Jana’s Thinking Place. I always like to thank her for giving us a spot to drop our stuff on Sundays. I really like to write this way so here is her prompt.

Today’s (totally optional) prompt:

What have you done recently or would like to do that’s outside your comfort zone?

 

Nothing.

 

Absolutely nothing to report. I haven’t done anything recently that has been out of my comfort zone. Also, I have nothing on my mind that is out of my comfort zone (this is exceptionally atypical for me).

 

I’m trying to decide if this depresses me or if I’m okay with it. My life generally vacillates between way too busy or not anything to do; much too exciting or far too boring; craziness versus normalness.

 

Sometimes I really wish for more of a balance. I just don’t think my life is cut out to be that way even though my zodiac sign is one of balance, a sign that craves balance.

 

I guess I go more for balance in personal relationships than with what goes on in my life. I sort of just get caught up in the flow and hope it sweeps me either someplace fun or, at least, not too precarious. Hopefully a productive place as well.

 

So today.

This week.

This month.

Next month.

I’m predicting no excitement and no action outside the box. I'm also predicting movies and books and lots of them.

 

Fingers crossed for next year. Pretty please. There’s only so much lack of adventure and hysteria a girl can take.

 

Actually, I relish in the peacefulness of what most people would consider my boring life. And that’s okay.

 

DONE!

 

So here are Jana's rules:

• Set a timer and write for 5 minutes.
• Write an intro to the post if you want but don’t edit the post. No proofreading or spellchecking. This is writing in the raw.
• Publish it somewhere. Anywhere. The back door to your blog if you want. But make it accessible.
• Add the Stream of Consciousness Sunday badge to your post (in the sidebar). .
• Link up your post below.
• Visit your fellow bloggers and show some love.