Feeding the Senses - by Susan Giles

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https://Voice.club - There is color everywhere she looks. Bright riotous designs blend into one another warring for color supremacy. Reds blend into blues which unapologetically explode into purple. Pastels lay hidden behind garish greens and oranges. No place is safe to look. Each movement of her head leads her to another blast of color, patterns, designs all overpowering one another.

She takes a deep breath, then closes her eyes. Colors still swarm in her memory, but the violent chaos is slowing down. Deep within, she feels a quietening, a hum, which grows to calmness slowing the hectic pace of her heart.

She is afraid the solarium might be too much for her. It has been years since she has seen such an abundance of color. The frozen tundra is not a place where such could be found. Traveling North with her husband as missionaries she had not considered this. She researched their new home, purchased appropriate clothing and personal items necessary for frigid weather, but had totally forgotten to feed her senses.

Now back in warmer climes after three years in the North, she realizes the mundane singularity of life there: gray skies, white snow turning gray, animals camouflaging themselves gray for protection, even the wind is remembered as gray having no tree leaves or rippling water to aid its song. She too, turns gray, and falls into depression,

The gray stays with her in the hospital, on the plane trip home, even on the ride from airport to her new home to which she is released.

She trembles now as life returns to her. Stepping out of the solarium she feels the warm sun on her face, hears birdsong welcoming her, and absorbs the fragrance of the lavender at her feet.

Clutching sprigs of lavender in her hand, she returns smiling to the solarium, not noticing the despair on her husband’s face as he listens to the doctor.

"I’m afraid she is not ready to be released. Her grasp of reality has not yet returned. There will be no miracle today.

The two men turn from her hospital room; the husband sorrowfully exits into the blizzard outside.

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Yes, Susan another brilliant kaleidoscope of colour and sound which your image magnifies. I fully comprehend how your protagonist is depressed by a grey landscape. Very dramatic to add blizzard to the final sentence, thereby doubling the despair. Clever but despairing reference to the miracle theme. Well done!

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I’ve always loved this story, Susan, and it is a perfect fit for the “Miracles” event. That’s also a gorgeous picture - is that one of your photographs? Wonderful recording, picture and story - as usual!

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Thank you, Margarida. One’s imagination can do many things, but not necessarily heal. Possibly the protagonist needed some music to help her through this time!

Thanks again for reading and commenting on my story.

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Hello, Susan. Your story of miracles is so beautiful, along with a brilliant kaleidoscope of color and sound that maximizes each dramatic scene. Thanks for the new word, solarium, that I can add to my vocabulary.

Well done.

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Yes, this is one of my photographs. I took it at the Fresco Church at Glendale Sprimgs. Bright colors even in July counteract depression, but only if it is reality, not imagination,

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Lotchie, I am so glad you enjoyed my story and that you are able to add the word “solarium” to your vocabulary! Isn’t that why we read and write, to increase our ability to communicate. We definitely learn from one another.

Thanks again for reading and commenting on my writing.

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