Even the most momentous creation – a whale or a love affair – begins with a tiny drop of something elemental – sand or honey – and is complete only when the final bit – a fluke or a splinter – slips into the right place.
Just a Thought 16
Image of sandcastle courtesy Commons.Wikimedia.org
Sharon Lynne Bonin-Pratt began her writing career the way so many others have done: by first doing everything else. Winning entries in grade school art, story, and essay contests convinced her to become a writer, but the real world intruded in adulthood and demanded she pay bills, raise kids, be a contributing member of the community. Along that rutted path she worked in the commercial art field designing patterns for surfer shorts, bikinis, and Hawaiian style shirts, taught after-school art through a city recreation program, and structured an art curriculum for three private schools. Ten years ago the writing muse, struggling to breathe in letters to friends and art articles, found its way to the surface. In a two-week period Shari wrote 60 pages of her first historical novel, and didn’t stop for three years. By then a second book demanded paper – OK, computer space – and now the third is in final revision stage. Of course, final revision is two words with a long shadow and a little footprint. Some folk claim they will write when the floors get vacuumed, the family accounting completed, the new garden planted. Shari is proof that all those things can be successfully ignored but not the urge to write. Her fiction explores human relationships, revenge, rage, forgiveness, redemption, and all the labyrinthine quandaries that mess up otherwise perfect lives. She resides in Southern California with her husband who’s learned to vacuum but not to cook. And the garden needs help.
Sharon Bonin-Pratt's Ink Flare 
Comments on: "Sand or Honey" (20)
Those great things can also be destroyed by tiny things as well. It’s amazing how little control we have over any of it. Very thought provoking for an early Monday morning!
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I try to make Monday mornings a tickle of ideas. Glad you liked this morning’s, Adrienne.
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Who builds a sand castle at the water’s edge? Hmmm…. probably completed in low tide. OK, I can think of a few reasons.
But I digress from your excellent point!
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Not as much planning as could have been – or maybe hoping the tide would take it all away.
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A lovely bit of prose for a Monday morning. Well said. Thank you, Sharon!
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Thanks, Jenna. Short is often best.
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This is so powerful, Sharon. The microcosm creating the macrocosm, in a sense – and all depending on fate, and maybe a smidgen of magic. 🙂
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I like that – fate and magic.
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or a bee slips into the right hive
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Bzzz. Uh oh!
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Shari, a lovely message.
Thank you
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My pleasure, Audrey.
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Shari, a lovely thought to start my day. It never fails to astonish me how the smallest thing, event can lead to life-changing decisions, world occurrences…sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse.
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Biodiversity begins with incremental adaptations to circumstances, sometimes in error, but it’s essential to maintain the health of species. Sadly, Annika, changes can also occur for the worse, as in political situations, as you note.
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You capture so eloquently how the inconsequential things in life impact in a big way. Bees are apparently smarter than this sandcastle builder, never building a hive in such a precarious position (unless the queen is having a bad day) 🙂 Thanks for the inspiration, Shari!
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Bees are amazing community members. My parents used to own a small avocado grove in Vista that would never have thrived without the bees that a nearby grove owner kept. Each of the other stakeholders paid him a fee. My parents told us to stay away from the end of our property close to the hives, but I used to sneak up to that corner occasionally, just to watch the bees and hear their industry. Many years later, a hive got built in a nectarine tree in the front of our house. I could barely get my two little boys safely into our house. I called a beekeeper who came and carefully cut the hive into a box and took the entire thing to his property. We found it fascinating to watch how gentle the beekeeper was and how loyal the bees were to their hive. Love affairs are more impetuous. Thanks for reading, Terri.
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Wow, what a cool story! Vista is a beautiful area of San Diego North County! I was allergic to bees as a kid so I tread lightly around them to this day!
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Vista as well as all of Southern Cal has seen huge development in the past 20 years or so. I don’t think I could find the grove my parents owned – if it’s even still a grove.
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This is thought provoking – everything that happens need that final piece, the key that unlocks the creation. Your accompanying picture makes me wonder how many things undermine and prevent that final piece from turning.
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I think you’re right, Irene. So many unfinished projects because people lose the energy to make that final step. And then there are those that are crushed by unforeseen circumstances.
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