January 22: EAVESDROPPER. Many Thanks to Angela for today’s prompt, as we take a moment or two each day this month to reflect on words that come from the community. And thanks to Linda G Hill for getting us organized!
It started in his ears, a soft buzzing that originated from the high booth next to him. They’d come in from the cold, two women with long coats unzipping with such zest that he missed their initial conversation, after their loud greeting to the waitress, Margo, who seemed to always be working, at this particular breakfast and lunch café.
Today’s my day to offer up a prompt for Linda’s Just Jot it January. That prompt is CHEWY.
Instead of writing a story, I’m doin’ a thing. Sitting comfortably in my favorite coffee shop with a decaf Cafe Miel, with a strip of Bison & Beef Pemmican (additional flavors of ground sumac berries & maple syrup).
Best jerky I’ve ever had, a nice shot of salty with sweet. Chewy, yes, but not dry and leathery like the grocery store variety. Great afternoon boost as we launch into another…um…eventful week.
The sun is shining, getting a nice melt down. And note the sign on the wall. Let’s honor our beautiful, inclusive country. Most of us here have ancestry that relied on Lady Liberty’s promise. Let’s renew that.
January 9 – “Celebrate”. Many Thanks to Wendy for today’s prompt, as we take a moment or two each day this month to reflect on words that come from the community. And thanks to Linda G Hill for getting us organized!
(Part 3 of 3, continued from Stumble…)
Winter softened into Spring, Summer strolled by with bare shoulders and snapping flip flops, finally trading off the lazy slap of summer fun for the aromatic crunch of boots on fallen leaves. Squirrel Bird Woman was still feeding her charges, and it turned out that she had classes in many of the same buildings I haunted, as I grinded through my graduate coursework and final thesis. Not that I followed her around; we just walked many of the same campus paths. As my graduate program progressed, so did the number and mileage of walks I took.
Her range of feeding the animals was more extensive than Joe and I had realized. Piles of seeds were spread every quarter of a mile on the grass beside the sidewalks. She made her rounds early mornings and afternoons now, somehow refilling her buckets in between. Like me, she must have lived in one of the tiny apartments near campus. I knew better than to interrupt her efforts with words, but she did offer up a smile now and again. Progress.
January 8 – “Stumble”. Many Thanks to Lou for today’s prompt, as we take a moment or two each day this month to reflect on words that come from the community. And thanks to Linda G Hill for getting us organized!
(Part 2 of 3, continued from Intentional…)
I guessed we’d have to try another approach to find out more about the Squirrel Bird Woman.
January 6 – “Intentional”. Many Thanks to Dan for today’s prompt, as we take a moment or two each day this month to reflect on words that come from the community. And thanks to Linda G Hill for getting us organized!
(Part 1 of 3)
We knew she’d pass this way at just this time, a bucket full of seed for the birds in one hand and weighed down by an overstuffed backpack. Once she’d made sure the wildlife—well, CITY wildlife—were fed, she’d stop by our near-campus coffee shop for a small black coffee, which she took outdoors to watch the birds and squirrels scratch through what she’d left for them. She’d sit on the hard bench in the campus greenspace, tiny woman with a tight smile, pull a crust of bread out of the side pocket of her Goodwill wool jacket, and join them in their feast.
Valley of the Trolls 