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comment by user-inactivated
user-inactivated  ·  3151 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Today's Writing Prompt: Magic

Wolf Pen Hollow. That's my favorite space in the world. I would be there right now if I could be, but my presence over longer periods of time would change and ruin it. A six mile hike in from the nearest road keeps it remote enough but accessible if you'll work for it. Your reward is a flat clear spot to set up a space along the flowing waterfall that never runs dry. Heart in the middle of everything you need and nothing you don't, though you should bring food.

The woods will tell you a thousand times how to be a part of them and yet people starve surrounded by food they don't understand. Potato leaves are poisonous, did you know that? Tomato too; it's a part of the nightshade family. And the woods would tell you that too. If you were watching, and listening. Someone who listened a long time ago could understand what the forest was saying to them, and now you can buy their work to survive. Wapato, arrowroot, sorrels, the woods can sustain you.

When you burn the woods for warmth more than flame is released. And more than smoke and heat in kind. Everyone who has let their prejudicial mind fall away in front of a fire in the middle of the night knows exactly what lives in the flames. I've seen the future of myself free of outside influence and what the fire burns away I regretfully strap back on when I return to civilization. I've seen others do the same.

In flame and silent attention we are connected to our future through our past, but we cannot stay. It's a fleeting fancy where we over estimate our connections and understanding of surroundings. You can never go home again.





Isherwood  ·  3151 days ago  ·  link  ·  

This is a tight scene. The words flow well and the ideas are strong and clean. It's a nice scene on its own, and I could see it fitting into a larger story.