Writing prompt: every single image in this blog post will be a writing prompt. Focus on one thing in each image, bring out the colours, the life or the numbness. This can be a short story or poetry. Try to immerse yourself into the photo. Imagine what each image evokes in terms of feelings. Does it take you back to a time that was perfect, or does it haunt you with memories of a past you would rather forget? During all of this, put a song on repeat until you finish the task.
Song choice: Bon Iver – Wash
I watched…
as the sun settled down, meeting the horizon’s edge. I watched as it began its journey to the other side of world, bringing with it its light and warmth. I adjusted the round mirror to watch the sunset reflect off in my eyes. I noticed the curve of my brown pools and gold eye shadow. I noticed the wrinkles either side of my face from laughing too much earlier that day. I shuffled over from the driver’s seat and smiled sadly as we drove away from the place I had called home for so long. I watched the buildings pass by as we drew further and further away from my childhood. It was all I’d ever known. But it needed to happen. I leant my head back, feeling the light breeze wisp in from the open window of our turqouise vintage chevy. My favourite paisley scarf whipped back and forth in the breeze, reminding me that there was life here. Was I ready for this next step? Who knew? Would I ever be ready?
3 hours later we pulled into the drive of our new home. My head pulled up out of the light sleep I had forced myself into. I opened my eyes to dusk and the faint flow of the street light’s as he lightly tapped my shoulder letting me know that movement had to happen if we both wanted to get a full night’s sleep. I carried boxes, frames, plants and throws half-dazed out of the trunk and through a shaded area. Gravel crunched underneath my converse as we arrived at our front door. The keys jangled as he opened it and then we passed over the threshold into our new chapter.
I never thought that…
one day I would find him. My person. My best friend. He had chosen me and I had chosen him. It felt lovely to be someone’s choice. To be sought after and thought of the most fascinating thing after Him. Breakfast time was a scheduled date with the Lord and I had wanted to spend time alone reading His word before I let the rest of the day unfold. We had stayed up late last night attempting to make our room presentable. I trudged upstairs feeling the paint on the white bannister and twirled towards our new room, stopping slightly to see the door ajar. Here I was, peeking at my love through our bedroom door, an unfamiliar thing in comparison to him, I stood for a moment watching his movements. The light tip-tapping of his mind unfolding onto his laptop made me smile. The light shone in through the back window and I knew we had made it. We were home. He glanced up at me, his glasses falling at the sudden jerk of movement. His smile reached from here to South America, etched into his eyes were the stories of a distant land, of a mother and a strong father that led his family over the border to start a new life in the concrete jungle we now call New York. His smile made my heart jump still to this day, even after all this time and I watched from afar as he moved his laptop to the other side of the bed, gesturing me to join him.
I ran and jumped onto our makeshift crate bed and booped his nose.
“Hi there.” I chuckled and laughed in reply. I tipped his nose with mine and took his glasses off to let him know I looked cuter in them than he did.
“Hi yourself!” his focus rested on my face. “Fancy unpacking the living room with me? I can’t find my favourite pan.”
“Sure, last one there’s a rotten egg.”
He was here…
etched into all the different parts of our lives. We looked around at the pieces of our lives we had brought together as one. An amalgamation of patterns and vintage. If this room could speak it would say. “I am light. I am here and I am bursting with life.” The Lord had brought me here. The Lord had brought us both here. You search, high and low for something to satisfy that inner hunger forgetting that there is more, we always knew there was more. But we never knew it would be this brilliant. Sunlight poured in and I breathed in and out, His freedom, overwhelmed with gratitude at the life He had given me.
It was worth the wait. This was worth the wait. I had found myself in situations I never thought I would get out of. I had never realised freedom would taste this good until He finally etched it onto my skin. I was worth dying for, although I didn’t see it. He thought of me worthy and so I held onto him. Each night, when I didn’t think life would get any better, I couldn’t let Him go.
And then I woke…
My eyes, adjusting to the faint light, I reached over to the other side of my bed, over to nothing and pulled myself up, reaching for the light on my bedside table. I rubbed my sleepy eyes to look at the clock. 5am. I couldn’t on my fingers how much time I would’ve slept in total since yesterday evening. Four hours. It had been another restless night. The room felt empty, but mine.
A thought jogged my memory of the dream I had within those four hours. It was only a dream, a dream I so longed for one day. I walked up to the window, the faint glimmer of the streetlights illuminated the pavement of the concrete jungle that I called home.
My dream, a faint memory away but with the lasting conclusion of:
“I will wait for you.”
