Begin

“Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius,
magic, and power in it. Begin it now.” -Goethe

This, along with Darcy Pattison's recent blog entries, have me convinced that I need to be creating. I also need to be submitting. Where, oh where, is the balance? I know how good I feel when I've put some creative time in. Perhaps that will lay the groundwork for the persistance, courage and sheer will to get my stuff "out there."

Here goes:

Serena paused on the step for a moment—but not too long—and watched clouds simmer in the sky. There was wind aloft, dragging thin cirrus clouds in one direction, while the winds that blew her hair into a wild tangle sent lower cumulous clouds tumbling toward the north. The watery air reminded her skin of swimming in the dead of summer when the water was bathtub warm. For the first time this spring the buildings and cars and people all took on a hazy look, as though they moved behind a film.

Still the metal doorknob was cold beneath her hand. Her key twisted easily in the lock. This was the only home they’d had where she hadn’t had to push, pull or twist the key in some special pattern for the lock to release. Here a flick (key) and twist (knob) brought easy success. The contrast between the world out there and the one that was hers wasn’t lost on Serena.

It was all she could do to move forward into the anonymous darkness of the hall, instead of turning around on the stoop and right there in broad daylight, indulge in a throat-searing, attention-drawing scream.