Storytelling is a wonderful self-care practise. It allows you to review, reflect and learn explains Queneisha J. Harvey.
I invite you to the challenge to write a short story about your past year using
- a person
- an object
- a place
Do you dare?
Read here my story of 2021. You can also listen to it with one click.
She is sitting by the shore. The sun is lowering on the horizon with an intense colour that tinges the whole atmosphere around.
Birds can be heard bidding farewell to the day, the air is cool, a light breeze after a hot day.
The water moves in its swaying motion, carrying the water almost up to her bare feet in the wet sand.
The whole atmosphere is peaceful, while in her head there is a storm about what has just happened.
She can’t believe it yet and her head goes over the moment detail by detail without understanding it.
As if she could reverse it, override it and calm the emotional storm that swirls between shame, fear and hysterical laughter. She would like to be able to turn back, to say that it didn’t happen, to be able to return to the moment where it all began and decide something else to avoid all this.
The bitter taste it has left in her mouth is of reproach, of the ugly image she has of herself,
an image of a klutz, of a failure, of a person who doesn’t fit in where she wants to be successful.
It is always the same story that seems to lead to the same thing, mediocrity.
She feels a tickle on her arm, a white feather that the wind has brought here. It is beautiful, pure and light. It is a soft and pleasant tickle. She lifts her hand to remove it when she notices that the feather is slowly rising towards her shoulder. She is curious how precisely it moves, determined to reach the top, her shoulder. “Is it an imagination?” she wonders. It seems almost to be showing her affection.
As she looks at the feather, she notices the birds flying in a group together and playing at creating shapes in the sky. As she turns her head to chase their flight with her eyes, she sees the beautiful sunset in the distance with a red sun slowly descending. It makes her sigh and with the fresh air coming in, all her skin breaks out in goose bumps. She feels the pleasant coolness running down her back.
She smells the salty sea and wet sand. The taste in her mouth now tastes of the salty mixture.
Suddenly she hears the water as it laps up and down with a “clack” “clack” as it recedes before it invades the sand again.
The feather has already made its way up to her shoulder and, before continuing in the breeze. It takes its leave with a caress on the back of her neck. It makes her smile.
“Thank you” she says aloud, stands up, picks up her shoes and with a relieved heart sets off across the sand.
Happy reading yours soon. You might like to leave in form of a message or send it by mail.