Peace

“I’m out!” she shouted from the doorway, as she hitched her massive handbag up on her shoulder, opened the door and pulled her sunglasses down from on top of her head. She heard grumbling goodbyes from her workmates as she closed the door behind her and she felt bad, for just a moment, about leaving early. Well, it wasn’t early really, it was just earlier than everyone else.

But she’d had enough. Too many early mornings and late nights had taken their toll and she needed to get away. It was Friday and she had two glorious days ahead of her.

After battling the traffic home, she still felt restless, cooped up – she would call it cabin fever, but she’d only been home for 10 minutes. Grabbing her keys and her favourite hooded jacket, she left the house and started walking. She didn’t really care where she was going and she wasn’t really paying attention, she just needed to move. Her mind was buzzing with every piece of information from the last five days – meetings, phone calls, papers, emails, social media, all of it. She couldn’t turn her brain off and it seemed to be firing through to the rest of her body. She felt jittery, as if she’d had four cups of coffee on top of no sleep. Her skin was tingling and she couldn’t keep still. Even while walking, her hands were jumping up and down in her pockets and her eyes were darting all around, her breath making fog in front of her face.

She reached for her phone to check social media again, only to realise she had left it behind. For a second, she was irritated and even more agitated for forgetting it, but then she stopped in her tracks, breathed deeply and realised she really didn’t need any more stimuli.

She rubbed her face with the closed fingers of her fists, a little growl of frustration escaping her. She felt like she wanted to scream! Looking up, she could see the tops of trees in the distance and she realised how far she’d walked. She was quite close to the little woods on the edge of town. Suddenly, her thoughts seemed to crystallise and she started walking again. But it soon turned into a jog. She ran and ran, past the last little houses on this tiny, gravel-covered road, her feet pounding and her breathing the only sounds she could hear. The icy cold air hitting her lungs was a welcome shock, she relished such a strong feeling.

She reached the woods and kept running until she was surrounded on all sides by the tall red tree trunks. Stopping suddenly, she was breathing heavily and she bent over suddenly, her hands on her thighs as she re-gained her breath. Her nose was running and her fingertips felt frozen, but as she stood up straight and looked into the woods, she felt so much better. She felt alive. Her mind was as quiet as the empty woods around her.

This was exactly what she needed.

She finally felt at peace.

For today’s The Daily Post Writing Challenge: Finding Everyday Inspiration – A Story in a Single Image. We were given four images to choose from and asked to write something – either a story, a memory, a feeling – use it as a creative spark.

I’m so interested in how other people write. I sat down with my laptop, opened the email, looked at the our images for about 10 seconds and chose this one. Then I started to type. I deleted the first sentence and then started again and didn’t stop typing until it was done. I haven’t edited it all. This is my cathartic, get it out, don’t think too deeply, kind of writing. No theme, apart from the image, and definitely no planning.

At work, I am a planner. Last weekend, I didn’t get a chance to plan my week out and I felt out-of-sync all week. This morning, I took 30 minutes to review the week so far and then plan out today and tomorrow and I felt so much better,

And yet, when I write, I throw all that out the window. At work, I create social media graphics all of the time, and I don’t plan those either. I just open up the program and do whatever takes my fancy, And they work!

It’s fascinating to me how differently we all work.

Anyway, I hope you liked this little story. I felt like I was in it with her when I was writing it. I could feel her overwhelm and then the relief you feel when you get past it. It’s been a bit of an overwhelming week for me with an incredibly busy work schedule while also trying to recover from the flu. But I can see a light! The weekend is not far away. Perhaps I’ll find my version of the woods in this story. Actually I know I will – Julie and I are doing a photoshoot together on Sunday and that always takes my mind off everything except what I see through the lens.

I hope you’re having a wonderful week! And I hope you aren’t shocked that I’m back to my daily posting schedule after a year of randomness 🙂

x desleyjane