Līgo Haibun Challenge – Once Upon A Time

There is a choice between two photos on the Līgo Haibun Challenge this week and my thoughts ended up wandering around this one…

Once upon a time I believed in so many things…naively and innocently. The good always winning over the evil. In dragons, magic power and super heroes. That animals could speak and the golden fish could grant wishes. In mermaids being able not only to swim but also to walk. The Snow Queen turning somebody’ s heart in ice. That it takes a single kiss to wake one up from a hundred years long sleep. In happily ever after. What a wonderful world to live in…

Now, looking back at those days, I can see how much has changed. The veil of magic has been torn off for good, and invisible, yet thick walls created around instead. To protect but from what? My own doubts and fleeting faith? Limping dreams? Disbalance between fake and real? Not losing myself? Who knows… Who knows how much those walls have been able to rescue and, more importantly, how much has managed to survive inside them. I didn’ t ask for those changes years brought along but then nobody does. Life simply happens…just like that. And no matter how hard we would try to remain the same, that is the battle that never can be won.

Yes, once upon a time I believed…and then I grew up. Fortunately, there still are moments when I am suddenly reminded about not losing my sense of wonder, still holding onto belief and being able to appreciate the surprises life brings along. I try my best to not let it go. Even if naively…

no more fairytales
hidden between daily routines
another leap of faith

Līgo Haibun Challenge

Līgo Haibun Challenge – Unexpectedly Expected

This week there are two prompts for the Līgo Haibun Challenge:
Water       or       Order.
And it came to me – maybe not so much in order at once but step by step…

It was snowing as I left early this morning. Slowly, with the plume alike snowflakes – not dancing playfully but almost certain about where they were supposed to land and going for it. A bit surreal with pitch blackness all around, smoothened by something so white and pure. A hope, a promise that there’ s always light in the end of every tunnel.

wonderland
from caresses of snowflakes
my heart melts

For better or worse, that was not about to last. I was dragged back into another reality the moment I hit the road. Away from the fluffy dream-land into the late autumn day with heavy clouds of that dirty lead grey color. Growing, impatient to burst, yet constantly pushed around by indomitable wind until it finally happened. The inevitable – raindrops crushing against the windshield one after another. Creating the mysterious patterns that were supposed to lull my thoughts again before the pace was changed. Gaining power, they seemed eager to break through the glass, angrily. If there was even a tiny chance they could, they would have. Especially after the rain had turned into the grains of hail. Like frozen teardrops one would like to hide but not knowing how and why, so they kept rolling…

An hour later on my way back home there it was – the culmination of the day. A double rainbow in the clear blue sky, the one that can make the toughest sceptics to believe in wonders. Even if only for a moment. And it crossed my mind there was something of a woman in all of this nature’ s almost desparate attempt to be noticed. Moody and capricious, craving for attention, continuing to fail but not giving up. A touch difficult, often unexpected and unexplainable, like all seasons taking their course at once, still able to surprise. In the best possible way.

After all it is the natural order of the world – sooner or later something good will follow something bad. Either we believe it or not.

one day
for winter to turn into spring
(un)natural order

Līgo Haibun Challenge

Carpe Diem Haiku *Wisdom*

kite in the sky
run by runner or the wind
wise bird doesn’ t care

Image courtesy of Shahnaz Parvin

Carpe Diem Haiku