On Holding Nothing
Behind me, decades. Around me, the same. Past and present seemed as one. A life may change, but making this change, from one moment to the next, meant an adjustment that I could not make overnight, even when I knew it had been a long time coming.
Harmony can be deceptive, and an underlying discord had been woven through ours for many years. It had been much easier to dismiss it than to face it head on, but there it was. Holding on to something that, in truth, was long gone, I wandered, lonely as a cloud in skies that seemed to hold only darkness.
Yet, as time passed, I came to realize that the darkness had been there for a long time. Once I let those decades slip away, I left the storm clouds behind. Ahead of me were nothing but blue skies.
This is my response to Winter Be Gone!, the prompt from Lillian at dVerse ~ Poets Pub, where the challenge is to write a piece of flash fiction with a 144-word limit (here, exactly 144 words). Included in the bit of prose is to be a complete line from a poem. For this prompt, the line to be included is the opening line from”I wandered lonely as a Cloud,” by William Wordsworth.
I wandered lonely as a cloud
– William Wordsworth
Photo by Aakanksha Panwar on Unsplash
And… YAY!! New laptop. It feels good to have those problems behind me.
rivrvlogr 
This can be read in so many ways….I shall choose to think of it in terms of a relationship. Sometimes a relationship goes sour…and people just purse their lips and keep on with it. It can be years before someone acts and realizes, oh my gosh, there is sweetness in the world and mine for the tasting!
I enjoyed this take on the prompt!
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Thank you, Lillian.
Sometimes, looking the other way is easier than admitting the truth.
And thank you for the prompt.
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Human nature often holds us all back, fear and procrastination, two monkeys on our back. But I love your close, finding gold behind the coal.
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Thanks, Glenn. And I did find gold.
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I’m glad your skies have cleared. And a new laptop too! (K)
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It may be way back in my past, but it’s good to recognize how good things are now.
And new laptop… Yay!!
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Yes, that’s always true.
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Smooth work, KG. Thanks
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Thanks, Ron..
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Yes, a positive ending; let go and move on into those blue skies.
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😀
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I think there is healing in leaving the storm clouds behind and moving on towards blue sky. There is positive change that uplifts.
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Sometimes, we need to remind ourselves of that.
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Full of wisdom and insight. The analogies work well here as sometimes those storms we hang onto aren’t as big as we thought. We just have to push through them to find out.
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Thank you. It may take an effort to get past those clouded thoughts, but it’s worth it in the end.
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These sentences really make the piece, Ken. Beautiful.
-David
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Thank you so much, David.
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Sometimes we become prisoners of our own attitude towards disharmony. Beautiful, positive write, Ken.
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I love how you reflect on this passing of time and what it held.
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Some lessons are harder than others. Thank you, Paul.
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My pleasure Ken
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The relief is palpable here, even after much time has passed.
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❤
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