The howling wind has woken me prematurely. It is rushing frantically ’round my house, rattling the windows and doors, cold and lonely. The wildness in my veins wants to run out and dance with it, in the fractured moonlight offered up by the icy snow.
Like the descendant of the wolf snoring next to my beating heart, and the small cousin of the lion curled up on the flesh of my thigh, I too have been domesticated — a comforted creature ensnared by creature comforts.
Burrowed in my nest of blankets and quilts, and with my evolved human head cradled by the down of long-gone birds gliding along glassy waters, I wonder what may have been lost along the way.
I think the wind knows.
This post was created as part of Two Writing Teachers’ March Slice of Life Challenge.
You can view other writers’ Day 2 contributions via the comments here.
Hi Karen! It is so nice to see worlds collide – TTW friends meet SOL friends! Your post is gorgeous. Your words are gorgeous. Thank you for writing this!
Thank you so very much, Dana! I really appreciate it! 🙂
I’m right there with you! Interestingly enough, it’s 5:48 AM as I write this reply to you and I can see the moon outside my greenhouse window. The wind is also wipping around my house, so, as I was reading your story I could literally and figuratively “hear” that howling wind. Thank you for sharing this!
Thank you so much! It’s a pleasure to meet you!
Your slice is incredibly beautiful! Even if you stayed in, your words certainly danced in the wild with the howling wind.
Thank you so very much! 🙂
Wow, the drama of the weather and the connections you made to the pasts that you and yours had before domestication- something lost indeed, but at least you can appreciate it all from inside. Beautiful post! Great to see you!
Thank you so much, Erika! I do my best philosophizing when I’m half-asleep. (Ha!)
I was so excited to see you at Wake Up and Write. Glad the time worked for you! 🙂
Love your vocabulary usage in this slice! It really paints a picture in the reader’s mind.
Thank you so much, Aggie! 🙂
Karen in Canada, your post is startling and beautiful!! This sounds like a rather dreamy getaway for me. And you’re living it! 🙂 Thanks for sharing!
Thank you, Britt! Full disclosure: that’s not my house. I live on a fairly dense residential street in a small city. But I do have plans for a replica of Thoreau’s Walden cabin, and someday …
What a beautiful word portrait. I can see and hear everything. I feel like you brought the wild inside. We talk so much about writing, but I am excited to see your writing in this challenge.
Thank you so much, Heather! I was pretty pleased with how this one turned out.
Wow Karen. I love the imagery and how you describe everything in this slice. WoW!!!
Thank you, Donnetta! That means a lot! 🙂
Primal and poetic! I’m super in love with this slice.
You’re so kind, Thanks, Erica!
Love the images here! I also wake to the winter winds and think about joining them but you said it so artfully! Thanks for sharing this moment in time!
Those winds really call, don’t they? Thank you so much for your comments. 🙂
Reflections on domestication! I love how you tie your own situation with those of the beasts who keep you. Be wild…when it’s a little warmer. 🙂
“We all need the tonic of wildness,” — Thoreau
Henry and I differ on our enthusiasm about winter, though. I’m with you, and waiting until spring! 🙂
This is like a hybrid piece, almost more poem than prose. Beautiful. Thank you for sharing.
Your words are always so eloquent, your descriptions so poignant. The images you create with your words always paint a picture in my mind.
And, yes, I think the wind does know.