A Writing Journey

(When I met Melanie from TWT and other teachers in our Thursday writing group for the first time in January, she provided a mentor text to inspire our writing and asked us to choose a setting and describe it in detail. I recently found that paragraph, hand-written in my notebook. What a welcome surprise to find it and read it again. A reminder that stumbling upon the TWT blog and making a commitment to reignite my writing practice in community with other teachers was one of the best decisions I have made in a long time. Here’s that first slice.)

The late evening sunbeams flooded the dining room, creating rainbow reflections on the wall as light danced through the crystals that hung from the chandelier. She looked up from the computer screen to catch a shadow, projected across the ceiling. The light reminded her of warmer times — outside, but also inside. When connections were stronger and she didn’t feel that she needed to make excuses about why she wanted to stay at home. Winter cold lingering, the bitterness of the wind, the cascade of snow — they were all a perfect alibi for being alone, staying inside and creating the distance needed to exist without explanation. She welcomed the light. The warmth touched her pale cheeks like a fleeting lover’s kiss. She liked how it felt, but then it was gone. The red ball in the sky met the skyscrapers’ upper limit and slowly diminished, sinking secretly in the face of the encroaching darkness that quickly devoured the light.