I have waited so long to get back to the "No Experience Necessary Writer's Course Book" because I thought this assignment would take too long, but I must be over that.
The best way I can do it is to split it up to about 5 minutes on each sense.
First:
Sights, Sounds, Smells and Tastes that Move me (the beginning of the assignment is to come up with some of these and to list them for about 20 minutes)
Starting with smells:
Fallen leaves in the fall on the Ohio State Campus.
California on a walk.
Fresh cut grass.
Baking chocolate chip cookies.
A crackling fire.
Old library books.
Icy nose-hair freezing, chin numbing winter days.
Fred's face.
My parent's house.
An old friend's choice of bath and body liquid hand soap.
Moving on to Sights:
Bright yellow and red leaves on fall tress.
A sunset on the ocean.
Photos of the landscape of Greece.
A perfect rose inviting my nose.
Lights intertwining the eaves of a gazebo.
Smiles on little children.
My old teddy bear.
Perfectly sharpened new pencils.
My old bedroom.
Now tastes:
Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies.
Thanksgiving dinner, perfect bites.
Apple pie.
Chocolate Mousse Cheesecake.
Mom's Meat Loaf and mashed potatoes.
Hot Apple Cider.
Watermelon or Red Raspberry Bubble Yum.
Hot Chocolate with melting marshmellows.
A perfect diner cup of coffee.
A warmed cake donut from the school cafeteria.
Finally Sounds:
The chattering clattering background in a busy restaurant.
Talking all around me at a large family dinner.
Cricket and frog night sounds.
Keys mistaken for jangling dog tags.
The hum of the wings of a hummingbird in an instant of silence.
The lull in conversation.
The complete silence of the sleep of a strange room.
The spin of a washing machine.
Snoring.
Myself talking when I stop to listen.
Second:
Next part of the assignment is to take about 15 minutes just to let the mind wander and to write anything that moves me, whatever it is.
The danger of the empty mind being the devil's playground.
Feeling my stomach whine and being inexplicably angry that I have to think about diets, even though I'm not hungry or really denying myself.
How nice it is to take a little while to relax all of my facial muscles and to think of nothing.
The thought that it would be nice to take a nap and a bath at the same time and wondering if that would cause me to drown.
The uncertainty of whether or not I could be a good writer and how much struggle and time that would take.
The dynamics of leadership in our christian small group meeting.
Wishing I could be my small cat, how simple her life is, her biggest decision where to nap and who to sit on.
How torturous it is to try to let my mind wander for 15 minutes.
Third:
To use one of the above in whatever way, in a piece of writing.
An old friend's choice of bath and body liquid hand soap.
Fred and I had some friends a while back with whom we coordinated for our Friday night small group college meetings. These included the two of our families creating some sort of dinner and then creating an atmosphere, at either our apartment or their house, where college students felt welcome and we could have some kind of spiritual discussion, singing, bible reading or whatever. It was at the same time relaxed, as we were dealing with college students, who many times were at most interested in some free home cooking and time away from campus, and focused, as we were interested in helping them along in their spiritual lives whatever that would mean.
My friend and I would talk on the phone sometime early in the week and coordinate dinner. She had some specialties that we loved, her monkey bread, sausage bowtie pasta, milky way cake, homemade chicken and noodles, and overall delicious stick of butter type of foods. I usually would cling to an easier spaghetti, bread and salad standard. As we coordinated we would also confide in each other how our lives were going and sympathize and generally were friends. Although sometimes I wondered whether or not it was just proximity that created a friendship. Would we be friends if we didn't coordinate dinner and have our Friday nights together? If not, was there something superficial about the whole thing? Caring for each other by assignment?
When we had the meeting times at her house, she always had Bath and Body Works Cucumber Melon handsoap in her guest half bath on the lower level. I would use it and then take a deep breath as I smelled my hands, appreciating her lack of frugality in her soap choices.
A few years passed, our church went through a split among the members and her family stopped meeting with us. I got breast cancer and she called to let me know that she was thinking about me and as I tried to go a little deeper in the conversation she quickly small talked her way to ending the call. A few more years passed and it turns out that she has left her husband and family and pursued some of her other dreams, and I have no details other than what I've been told.
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