The Butterfly Hours Memoir Project: PHOTOGRAPH

For 2019 I'm running a year-long series on my blog in which I share my responses to the writing assignment prompts found in THE BUTTERLY HOURS by Patty Dann.

I welcome you to join me, if you like! I've divided the prompts by month, and the plan is to respond to 3 (or so) a week. For some of these I may write poems, for others prose. The important thing is to mine my memory. Who knows where this exploration will lead?

For links to the prompts I've written on so far this year, please click on The Butterfly Hours tab above.

This month's prompts are notebook, October, office, pajamas, paper, party, pencil, perfume, phone book, photograph, pictures.

PHOTOGRAPH

Somewhere, some time I was prompted to select a photograph of myself that showed me as I want to be. (The Artist's Way, maybe?) I instantly thought of this one, which I keep on my website with the caption “little Irene living a life worth writing about.”

Because I want to always be this little girl, eager to experience the unexpected river flowing in the back yard after a sudden rainstorm. Willing to get dirty. Fearless. Trusting the world. Immersed in nature, in touch with wonder. Playing, creating, living a simple, rich life – and yes, willing, too, to share the joy: to stand still a moment so someone (Mama?) can capture a photograph.