Haibun Thinking: A Night Time Stroll

On a Tuesday, new prompts are added to the Haibun Thinking page to create a post using the Japanese form of writing. Write a piece of at least one paragraph and finish it with a haiku style ending. If you want to know more about the Haibun, then you can go either to the Haibun Thinking page where it has examples, or you can go to Penny’s blog The Haven Of Haibun which goes into easy to read details of how they are created. Once this has been, you can stick a link in the creature and then have a look at what the other couple of people have written.

The prompts this week were a photo and the literary quote:

“Not all who wander are lost”
The Fellowship of the Ring (J.R.R. Tolkien)

By day, the hustle and bustle of the town is all around. People running to work, walking there, driving, bussing, going by taxi, driving; roads fill with vehicles where everyone is thinking about going to work, where the next pay check is coming from, where the money for the next bill, where the next meal is coming from. The day is filled with worry, with stress, with sounds of other people wondering the same things. Thinking about having more money going out than coming in, wondering where presents for Christmas are going to come from.

The end of the working day and heading home along with many other people, the thoughts the same as the morning, but this time there is the thought of relaxation. To sink into the favourite chair and get lost in the mundane life of television.

There is an alternative. Walk along the sea front beside the calmness of the water. Watch the reflection of the lights glitter off the water, feel the peacefulness of the air, the fresh breath. Let the worries float out to sea, and be washed away. Then when you go home, you can sleep with peace.

a night time beach walk
is sometimes all you need
to blow cobwebs out

Haibun Thinking – A Family Day Out

Haibun is a Japanese literary form that combines one or more paragraphs of your written narrative (prose) with a concentrated (short) poem – the haiku. Hai stands for haiku, bun stands for prose.

The haibun and/or the haiku present a relationship between the nature of the human experience and ‘nature’ (the natural order of life).

Haibun Thinking is a weekly challenge using several prompts ranging from film and celebrity quotes, phrases from literature, photos or pieces of artwork. This week was Film Week with a quote from the late great Robin Williams in Dead Poets Society, and a photo from Arthur Browne (go visit his blog, it’s a good laugh). I chose his photo.

There’s a couple of other Haibun if you want to read them here.

“Carpe diem. Seize the day boys, make your lives extraordinary”
~ Dead poets Society (Robin Williams)

© Arthur Browne

A Family Day Out

Travelling by train, looking out the windows, watching the scenery blur past. Children pointing excitedly to horses, sheep, cows, even other trains; they jump up to see if the road below is visible when the express thunders over the bridges, waving to the people looking up.

Closing on the destination, they start pointing to landmarks, voices becoming faster as they see more and more. The train slows to a stop, parents grab the hands of the children as the bustle leaves the train, pushing, shoving, and hurrying to their place of work.

As the family leaves the station, the eyes of the children grow wide with wonder as they see sights never seen before, except in photos. They pull their parents along, wanting to go everywhere first. Going in to museums to look at creatures long since dead and extinct; trying their hands at science, making things move without touching them. Standing in an area recreating earthquakes, trying to stand up straight, giggling as the ground violently shakes and squealing in delight as the lights flicker.

 Visiting the wheel, taking them to huge heights and seeing for miles around, parents naming landmarks, taking photos. Finishing the day travelling on the river and back to the station

a family day out
visiting wondrous places
making forever memories

Haibun Thinking – Sitting On The Fence Gets You Splinters

Three out of four weeks, we are given a choice of two items to use as a prompt with the fourth week being freestyle. This week is Art Week. The choices are a photo by Arthur Browne, and a piece of art by my favourite artist, Victoria Frances (with my favourite piece of art by her) If you would like to have a go at creating your own Haibun, then take a look at the Haibun Thinking blog. I chose Arthur’s photo of the fence.

get the InLinkz code

© Arthur Browne

© Victoria Frances

CHOICES

I sometimes play a game on my console called Destiny, and one of the lines in that is in that game resonated with me and it is one that will stick in my mind for a long time. It is odd when a game can do that.

Everything we do has an effect not only on us, but on others around us. Every decision, every smile, every nuance, everything changes something or someone. If we nod to someone, we may change that person’s attitude; if we hold a door open for someone, we alter the way their day was going to go; if we hear a baby laugh the chances are our mood will lift. Likewise, if someone is nasty to us, it can change our day downwards. Someone jumping the queue ahead of us can (and probably will) annoy us. Seeing someone crying can sadden us. These are things that automatically happen to us. We don’t choose the change when someone smiles at us. We don’t choose the gratitude when someone holds the door open for us. We don’t choose the lift when we hear a baby laugh.

You see an article on the news… terrorists attack somewhere – the majority of us feel for the people injured. We choose to feel for these people. The same way there are some people who will choose to feel for the terrorists. In a war, people choose who they support. We choose whether to support Democrats or Republicans. We choose whether we support Conseratives or Labour. We choose which football team to support. We choose whether to support a team or not. Sometimes we choose to sit on the fence. Although there are times we can’t do that. If you sit on the fence too long, you will get splinters. There comes a time where you have to choose.

We …
Choose …

eventually
in any situation
we must pick a side

“There comes a time where we must all pick a side, little light. Even if it is the wrong side” The Stranger (Destiny)

Haibun Thinking – When Things Go Wrong

Haibun Thinking is a weekly challenge to create something usually of a human nature from one of two prompts. For this week’s prompts, we had a choice of a photo or a quote from a film. The photo is from Sally at My Beautiful Things, and the film prompt is near the end of the film Blade Runner. I chose the quote. This came to me tonight just after my XBOX One broke on me.

© Sally – My Beautiful Things

“All those moments will be lost in time…
like tears in rain.”
~ Rutger Hauer (Blade Runner)

Sometimes we do things that cheer ourselves up. We are low, so we try to lift our own spirits. These things we do may be to take ourselves on a shopping spree, to take ourselves to the movies, to do things we wouldn’t normally do.

Just the idea of doing this can help. We can go from tears to wiping them away with just the thought of “Tomorrow, I will go see the latest action movie / chick flick / rom-com” or “I will go and buy myself something”. Maybe even going for a walk somewhere you don’t normally go. If you normally walk through an urban area, why not go to the beach. If you normally go to the beach, why not go to a wooded area. If you normally go to a wooded area, go for a walk with nature. That time out can make all the difference.

Sometimes though, that can be taken away from us as well. A sudden deluge; traffic; other problems, these can drop us as well. What can we do then? We can look to other things. We can look to ways of changing the outcome. We can still get back on top. There is always a way.

life can go askew
it does not have to be all bad
we just need a fresh view