I took some time off the blog.

After many hours working on a different writing project, summer came to a close and this season of my life took a big turn. I planned on jumping right back in here, but instead I lingered, stuck. Stranded. Speechless.

Like any writer, I’ve been stuck before, but this pause felt more like an unraveling. I’m not so good with big changes. Or waiting. But it’s been an important pause to sit and listen and think and feel and some days, fall apart. I’m not sure the unraveling is all the way behind me, but I’m ready to lay down some words here.

It’s October, and so I’m joining with #write31days for a new series:

~ 31 Days of Poetry & Writing Prompts ~

In this #write31days series, I’ll share some of my favorite Poems along with images of Places we’ve wandered in recent years. I’ll also leave a writing Prompt each day, for those who, like me, need a little spark to stoke their writing fire.

Even if you have no desire to string together lines of your own, this series will enrich your life, because that’s what poetry does.

Poetry helps us see the beauty through the chaos of our lives, and I believe that shift is life-changing.

So, will you join me here? {Subscribe below to make it easy.}

Green

by D. H. Lawrence

The dawn was apple-green,

The sky was green wine held up in the sun,

The moon was a golden petal between.

She opened her eyes, and green

They shone, clear like flowers undone

For the first time, now for the first time seen.

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I remember sitting in a row of blue-eyed girls, assuming my eyes were also blue.

I’d never studied my eyes before.

I thought the eyes of my friends reflected the color of my own. I thought I’d find myself there, like they’d explain me. But it wasn’t the explanation I wanted.

You don’t have blue eyes, they said. Your eyes are green!

Does eye color matter? Eyes can be altered, you know. Had I needed contacts, I would have changed the color of mine. I sang along about brown-eyed girls. But I wanted what I saw the most.

Baby-blue California-sky eyes.

I wanted ocean-blue eyes.

Eyes are not the only difference I’ve longed for.

Given my Myers-Briggs letters, I’d choose a better combination. Given my top 5 strengths, I complain, Who wants Harmony & Empathy, Input, Achiever, & Intellection? On the Enneagram, I locate myself on Helper with a strong Perfectionist wing. But look at that Adventurer across the circle, having more fun than anyone. While we’re at it, Melancholy’s a diagnosis I’d trade for Sanguine any day.

Discontentment is a real struggle here. It’s probably written into my personality profile, but I don’t know which one.

Was it DISC profile? Strengths Finder? Birth order? Spiritual gifts inventory? Lifeplan? Happiness Style? They’re all stuffed into a blue file folder in the closet.

Maybe my eyes are just green with envy.

I don’t know. I see the good in other types, other strengths, other colors. But I also think I know better than what I’m given.

So I dreamed of trading my green eyes for your blue. But then they opened, and “green they shone, clear like flowers undone for the first time, now for the first time seen.”

What does a flower look like, when it’s undone? When it unravels?

Green.

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