Examples Of Remembrance

The tickling sensation of heat bathing his face forced him to slowly open his eyes. The sun’s golden rays stunned him blurring his vision as he quickly turned away. As his eyes adjusted, he was surprised to find the absence of his father. His heart started to pound and all the confidence and security that he had built up melted in the space of a few seconds. He jumped up flinging his sleeping bag on to the ground and looked around taking note of his surroundings. To him, it felt as if the trees were suddenly sent out to attack him like stealthy assassins gaining on him as they moved side to side from the winds steady breeze. The faint noise of bugs and animals chattering sounded like the grunt of a predator before it hunts its prey. A colossal cloud

Instead of your heavy winter coat, you decide on a raincoat and boots for the upcoming rain. With the wet dirt and uncovered tree’s, earthly smells enclose your senses. Seeing the newly grown grass. Hearing the birds chirp after returning back to their homes. Critters have just begun to come out of hibernation and everything starts to become the active beaten path you used to know. As the clouds start to disappear and the sun comes out of hiding, trees and plants start to bloom with new life with the vibrant colors of summer. Leaving behind the pastel colors of spring, summer brings noisy vibrant colors to life. The animals wake and scamper across the cement pathway while the flowers open to the morning rays. Different smells meet you halfway to fill your nose with aromas that have not been discovered since last

Great green and yellow grasshoppers are everywhere in the tall grass, popping up like corn to sting the flesh, and tortoises crawl about on the red earth, going nowhere in plenty of time. Loneliness is an aspect of the land. All things in the plain are isolated; there is no confusion of objects in the eye, but one hill or one tree or one man. To look upon that landscape in the early morning, with

he jungle gave way to the lithe figure, running and jumping through the alien thicket, dodging and turning in her way to the familiar site. Even at such speed, probably with more reason, her eyes were watchful, alert. The low plants with the wide leaves and blue spots were harmless and edible, a brush with the tall red sprigs of the reeds in humid areas caused a fever. In the daylight such things were easy to distinguish even in a hurry, but it also meant that she had to be careful with the predators like the one chasing her.

The sound of chirping avians, howling beasts, and zipping insects fills your ears until there is no more ear left to fill. At every moment, a buzzing that equates to a power saw is hammering your eardrums with the ferocity of an untamed stallion. In the middle of the day, birds are overwhelming with their screaming, yet as night takes the world and the feathered fowl take rest, an eerie silence can be broken only by the ever-constant insect, still whirring across the invisible horizon. Yet, as you approach the enclosure of a rescued beast, it is almost as if the forest holds its breath with you, and stops whatever it does to stare through your eyes at the elegant animal as it slowly turns its head to return your gaze. Freshly cut bananas from the trees just down the road taste as sweet as candy, and the papaya from the market is still as juicy as when it was cut from its branch mere hours ago. The mango, overflowing with flavor, could bring life into the eyes of a dead man and could rejuvenate a bedridden, comatose man with its bursting taste. In the Costa Rican rainforest, all the body’s emotions and feeling are stimulated to the maximum capacity, to the point where it is impossible to focus on just one mind blowing perception. The rest of the world has its own set of sounds, flavors, aromas, and things that are astonishing to perceive, but nothing can compare to the inconceivable majesty of the

Looking across the pastures and gently rolling hills of the farm, broken up into rectangles by barbed wire fences, I see dots of black where cows graze. Farther away in another pasture two spots of chestnut makeup horses, sleeping in the bright sun. Another horse, whose gleaming copper coat spotted with brown and white shines in the light, is slowly walking around his pasture looking for the perfect place to eat. I take a deep breath of rich air and smell the earthy scent of dirt, manure, and animals. Tall, green grass gently dances in the warm breeze. Birds flit across the sky, landing in the branches of large oak trees and a white cat creeps through the fescue, searching for her afternoon snack.

When presented with this assignment, I didn’t know anyone over the age of 70 local to my area, so I asked a classmate if I could interview her grandmother. Her grandmother, BD, graciously agreed to do the interview.

Hearing a wide variety of beautiful birds and seeing the glistening sunlight reflections over a river is an everyday occurrence in nature. It is the place people go to ease strong feelings by prevailing the beauty of the untamed woods. The woods at which a multitude of creatures and occasional people use for protection from opposing thoughts or actions. Obtaining protection from nature is one of man’s best ways of securing their safety from the unwilling. With the tremendous amount of foliage, the woods are able to conceal any person like the spots on a fawn.

Wind blowing through my hair, hitting my face with its harsh, yet somehow gentle touch. The water and trees fly by creating a blended canvas of leaves and murky pools. My young mind knowing I had strayed too far from home. Nonetheless, I continually peddled down the road toward my unbegotten objective. The decision that would inevitably have to be made, played out in my mind. Like a grainy old movie they waged war on each other each vying for control over the other. The first and the loudest screamed itself hoarse telling me to roll on, and forget about my responsibilities, to leave my life behind. The second was a steady voice of reason, saying to turn around, to face the consequences of the dilemma that I myself had created. Unbenounced to the six year old boy determined to explore each and every inch of the mysteriously alluring swamp, this frame of thinking would slowly take over his life in such a way that on one could predict.

Vegetation grew thick as towering trees enclosed upon them. The Boy's pace slowed as he began to feel fatigue. His legs: heavier with each step, his lungs: burning with every gasp of air. Despite the pounding in his ear, the Boy could hear the footsteps of the creatures that followed him. Their heavy breath bellowed a low growl. The Boy risked a look over his shoulder. Blurred outlines dashed in the shadows, followed by the fog of its' breath. They were catching up to him, closing in from both his sides. His heart pounded faster.

The mommas crash through the plum thickets and into the clearing and wade in the sparkling grass. A lumbering Hereford bull tails them, with young calves frolicking about, bumping into each other. A covey of quail scurries under the rusted barbed-wire fence, and into their houses amongst the tall grass. The newly budded trees greet them...

“The past is where you learned the lesson, the future is where you apply the lesson.” -Anonymous. Through memory we can move onward from our past to widen our communities in the spirit of a superior future by being resilient and wise.

It was a gorgeous summer day. the sun was shining, the birds were singing, and the world was at peace on the seemingly carefree sunday afternoon. church had just ended and the children ran fast and free ready to play. They ran two and twelve towards the town’s lake to go swimming, in order to ward off the heat of the noon sun. They stampeded through town bumping over numerous people and even one another to reach the cool blue waves. The menacing multitude took a sharp turn from the street to an old dusty road. The trees shook in the evening breeze and swayed slightly further when the children hurried by. Dust faintly clouded out the light that poured over the path. Finally they reached the dock and began to take off and swap clothes. The boys took off their shirts and pants and swam in their underwear, while the girls chose to go behind some nearby bushes.and exchange out their attire. When everyone was in they started to splash one another while laughing and shouting. A few of them dived under the water to search for fish and other sea life. When they came back, up two of them had seaweed, one held a starfish, and two others had a crab holding it by both sides. It was getting a little later in the day, but the kids were not quite yet ready to leave their fun to rest. They decided to play hide and seek even though the sun was beginning to make its descent behind the green curtains that were the distant hills. One child counted while everyone hid and waited. As he counted out

The scent of freshly cut grass wove with the smell of newly planted roses. He sat on a old and decayed wooden bench with his faced turned from society. In his hand lies newspaper titled “monster in the park”, that was torn to bits and covered in mud. In front of him, a flock of pigeons pecking at some bread crumbs, even they looked at him in disgusted. A new piece of paper is laid on her lap, his body she sketched, her eyes taking in even the tiniest of detail. She was fascinated with how every time a person would walk by and how it made his back straighten and smile brighten which then follows with sadness as the 10th person walked straight past him. She thought to herself, how can this single man – just like everyone – could be ignored. Because

Spring unfolds through April and May, and the narrator has missed spring’s beginning. Plants are greening and flowering, and hibernating animals are reappearing. The narrator feels an urgency to examine every creature quickly before summer comes and they begin to decay and devour each other.