Soft cloak

The sparkling water distracts, while she is shy above it, cloaked. She waits for the moisture that remains after Mount Olympus has taken her share from the clouds as they roll over. Over the year Mount Olympus and her sisters take hundreds of inches before the clouds pass on to Tahoma, but she catches the moisture left and builds a soft cloak. She is nearly hidden in the blues and pale blues. Look for her.

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It doesn’t fit, but I wrote it for the Ragtag Daily Prompt: risque.

coot

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: jet.

I am going to use the meaning of the color jet: jet black. The color is from jet, lignite used in jewelry. Lignite is a precurser to coal. I have a necklace of jet beads from my great aunt.

This coot is jet black in the sun and against the water. Coots look self-contained to me, shyer than the ducks. They look down in the water and make noises to them selves, not like the insistent mallards. They move a little bit robotically. The neurological wiring seems more primitive than the ducks.

small bun

We walked yesterday and saw three bunnies down the road. Then we realized that there was a young one right by us on the verge. We froze, except for the cameras, and this little one munched leaves and grass. Delightful! A bird finally sounded a warning and our friend hopped into the bushes.

No one gets angry at rabbits for being scared or shy. Why do we put so much pressure on children and on people for these emotions? Why do we label some emotions as “bad”? Fear and shyness help the young bunny survive and humans have these emotions too for the same reasons.

My daughter would not talk to strangers for years. She considered everyone strangers even if I knew them. It was not enough to have me introduce her. She would not speak. At two she would observe new day care staff for two weeks before she would speak to them. And I did not try to change her, because maybe… maybe that is more sensible than we adults want to admit. Not all people are nice or kind or ethical. And children need to know that as they grow. Caution will help this small bunny survive.

 

 

shy

This is for Virtues and views, Blogging from A to Z, the letter S.

There is more than one feeling that the fog could raise: shy, sneaky, subtle, sleepy. Scary if I am in a sailboat and the fog slides off Marrowstone Island and reaches fingers towards my boat. If I am smart, I am prepared with charts and radio and GPS and radar and I know that the ferry comes through and I will stay out of it’s way.

From dictionary.com: shy.

1. bashful; retiring.

2. easily frightened away; timid.

3.suspicious; distrustful:
I am a bit shy of that sort of person.

4. reluctant; wary.

5. deficient: shy of funds.

6. scant; short of a full amount or number:
still a few dollars shy of our goal; an inch shy of being six feet.

7.(in poker) indebted to the pot.

Yet these all seem negative. Can’t shy be a positive feeling? From everything2.com and Webster 1913:

The embarrassed look of shy distress
And maidenly shamefacedness.
Wordsworth.

That isn’t what I want either, that women should be shy and retiring.

No, I am thinking of the shy delight and mystery of the fog lying over Marrowstone Island while it’s clear on the water. And wondering shyly if the fog will expand as the tendrils reach down to the water… or will it dissipate slowly to a bright clear sunny day?

My shy and secret delight at the beauty of the world.

 

 

I is for introverted

I is for introverted…. welcome to 7 sins and friends where we are welcoming and admitting all feelings, even those we don’t approve of, as human and as ours.

From dictionary.com
noun
1.a shy person.
2.Psychology. a person characterized by concern primarily with his or her own thoughts and feelings (opposed to extrovert).
3.Zoology. a part that is or can be introverted.

Odd. Introverted sounds much more selfish than I think of it! I think of introverted as people who get energy from being alone and who like to play in their own minds! I tested as more introverted than extroverted on a Myers Briggs test at the start of medical school, in the 1990s. I thought then that I was an introvert. But the test merely expresses people’s preferences, so everyone can act in an introverted or extroverted way, depending on their mood and how they are feeling at that moment. And part of continuing to grow is to learn to use the parts of ourselves that we avoid or that are poorly developed. I tested as an introverted thinker and what did I avoid? Exactly what I am writing about: feelings. I had to do a lot of work over the years to develop that part of me and I avoided it until my mother died. Then I had to do the work and it is well worth doing. Not that anyone is ever done….

adjective
4.Psychology. marked by introversion.

I

verb (used with object)
5.to turn inward:
to introvert one’s anger.
6.Psychology. to direct (the mind, one’s interest, etc.) partly to things within the self.
7.Anatomy, Zoology. to turn (a hollow, cylindrical structure) in on itself; invaginate.

I took the photograph behind a church in town, walking around on Sunday. I had not been behind it and didn’t know that there was a labyrinth. A labyrinth makes me think of introversion, all the turns and walking a path in a small space, focused and yet open to whatever thoughts arrive.