In response to a prompt from A Writer’s Path.
Include all of these elements into a scene: a wine glass, a translation book, awe, and a puzzle piece.
*****
She sat on a blanket on the hard, uneven ground of the Cave of Souls. The tarnished brass oil lamp sitting on the over-turned crate drenched the space around her with soft yellow light. Taking a bubble-wrapped bundle from her backpack, she unwrapped the pink wine glass. It was special to her. The only one left from her wedding set. It was fitting, she thought, that she use it on this special occasion. Filling it with St. Chapelle Special Harvest Riesling 20-yesterday, she set it beside the lamp on the crate.
Shivering in the slight breeze that always filled the cave with fresh air, she pulled her sweater closer about her, tugging long, red hair from beneath the collar. The evening was late, the cave dark. The circle of light was small and intimate not reaching into the far corners of the grotto. But she wasn’t afraid. She’d been here many, many times in the past six months. In truth, it felt like home to her now. She could hear the crickets playing their nightly symphony, and somewhere in the distance a drip, plop, drip, plop of water into the fresh spring she’d been drinking from all these months. A spring that had revived her soul.
Settling cross-legged on the blanket, she pulled the Book of Translation from her pack. Lovingly she ran her hand over the cover reading the words for the hundredth time, Something More: Excavating Your Authentic Self. Reverently she opened it to the very last essay in the book. This was it. The last piece of the puzzle of her life, of who she’d been in the far past. Not a literal piece of puzzle, of course, but a puzzle that was her, nonetheless.
Retrieving her glass she sipped the dry wine as she began to read the final entry in the Book of Translation.
“Something More is self-knowledge. The knowledge that your passion is holy and that the only way you’ll be able to live authentically is to be true to your passions. But the only way you or I can be true to our passions is to swear never, ever to betray ourselves again.”*
The lamp flickered beside her as her mind wondered off now and then taking stock yet again of what she’d learned from the book. The crickets cricked, the pool plopped, the bottle emptied, and finally she was at the end.
“For the sake of all that is holy, believe that you deserve nothing less than Something More.”*
Setting the empty glass aside, she closed the book and hugged it to her chest feeling the wonder and awe of all she’d learned about herself these many months. The final piece of the puzzle was in place, the picture of who she was firmly fixed in her memory and mind. One last question haunted her, though. It was one thing to know who you’d been in the past, but did she have the courage to continue her journey to who she would become in the future?
Standing, she began packing up her bag. She looked around. I’m going to miss coming here, she thought. And though it might have been the breeze that wended its way through the cave, she could have sworn she heard someone say, This Sanctuary is always here for you. It’s yours, after all.
~Calen
* quotes from Sarah Ban Breathnach’s Something More: Excavating Your Authentic Self
Fimnora Westcaw said:
I was over in another post when this one caught my eye. And then I saw the book listed. Perhaps this was the first post I read of yours which got me asking you about the book. But I see how it is you call it spelunking! What is so interesting, also is that as a girl, I had dreams of living in a cave. 🙂
I also love how you are working with many different prompt sites. This is what I need to keep me going; to find sites that offer greater possibilities. There are no coincidences.
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calensariel said:
Hey Fim… What kind of prompts are you looking for? I’m glad to see someone is around tonight. This place is dead.
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Fimnora Westcaw said:
Yes, I’m here. 🙂 I know what you mean. I think it was last week that I wrote that Ghost Town post because, like you said, it’s dead!
After these torturous Writing 101 prompts have become a memory, I know I will want to work with prompts. In fact, I still have the 5 photos, 5 stories on my links to remind me that I still have that to do. 🙂 But I feel certain that I’ll want to find, nor need something to keep me keeping on. I actually did a follow for ‘The Writer’s Path’ so I can go and check that out.
Anything that will be a stimulant to my addled brain 🙂
I know you do so many things. I noticed on your blog that reading one post, actually brings up ‘like’ posts, which are different as I make my way through them. I’m thinking it’s a category specific arrangement?
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calensariel said:
“I know you do so many things. I noticed on your blog that reading one post, actually brings up ‘like’ posts, which are different as I make my way through them. I’m thinking it’s a category specific arrangement?” Not sure what you’re referring to. I need another clue!
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Fimnora Westcaw said:
Right above this comment section, above the ‘previous’ and ‘next post’ buttons, are links to three ‘related’ posts that you did. So I’m thinking that your theme and the way you set it up, will bring me automatically other related, categorically speaking, posts which you’ve done.
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calensariel said:
Well heck, I’ve never page any attention to those. Imagine that! Yeah, it stands to reason it would be related to something similar. (Yes, I truly am a blonde…)
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Fimnora Westcaw said:
LOL too funny! After I read “The Lady In Waiting” post, I saw that “Cave of Souls” was listed as a ‘related’ post. So I went over. Glad I did. LOVED it!
Oh! and I got a notification this morning about POST 3, or the 3rd part of the ‘adoption’ post, but when I tried to click to go to your site, it said, ‘page not found.’ Did you know that?
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calensariel said:
Yes, I hadn’t mean to hit PUBLISH yet! I was fixing something. So I had to find out how to undo that real quick! I think I will go ahead and publish it Monday. I have one more piece after that, and I also have something I might want to use as a follow-up post or an epilogue kind of. I think they waited way too long to move on with that assignment.
You know, I really enjoyed writing about the adoption. I had gotten to know our case worker, Marion, really well. Spent some time with her personally. She knew I wrote. She told me someday I would write a book about that adoption. I’m still in touch with her after all these years. She was so impressed with Holt International that she ended up moving to Oregon to work for them. In fact, I owe her a letter. Yes! I actually STILL do hand-written letters (some in proper Victorian English), and I am generally long-winded!
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platosgroove said:
Nicely done. Gentle elegant soft as the breeze.
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ColleenK said:
Love this. You always find something so deep and thoughtful to say.
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calensariel said:
Not really. I think I just like caves… Grin So excited you jumped in!
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