undiscovered discovery :: 50 word short story
Once again, we are blessed by @jayna's efforts in organizing the Fifty Word Story Challenge.
The prompt this week: wing
This time around, I was fortunate to have some inspiration while I sat outside having morning coffee on Friday. I watched this little butterfly struggling from his tiny white prison for some time before he finally broke free. I followed him around the patio until he finally settled down on a vine outside and I could get some photos.
“Ew! Disgusting! Gross!” All the other kids laughed and ran away, searching for something new to mock.
Katie stayed behind, bent over and watching the chrysalis giving birth to beauty.
“You can do it,” she breathed.
The butterfly’s body finally flexed free, and it spread its wings to the sun.
And a few more images of the hero of today's story.
Just before I opened the screen door, he gave me a shot where I could get the sunlight behind his translucent wings.
Finally, he settles down somewhere pretty amidst the vines of our white jasmine. Good luck, little guy.
Title image by @negativer using Canva. All photos by @negativer.
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Wow, that’s beautiful, @negativer. (But who are you and what have you done with the real Neg? That guy would never write something this light and upbeat.) But seriously, well done, and thank you for not having one of those kids step on it or something. Your photographs are nothing short of amazing!
Oh man. I could have had a kid step on it.
saves it for later
Thanks @jayna! It's hard to be completely negative on a Friday!
True! Happy Friday! Is it time for some micro-brew fun?
LOL!
The real Neg is still in there, somewhere... ;)
I find it quite funny that I'm reading two creative pieces inspired by chance encounters of the tiny, flying kind this morning (this and Tiny's Bumblebee I managed to catch just before payout).
I liked this, in the way one may enjoy a pastoral story or poem. It took me back to those days during my younger years where I would amuse myself with the tiniest things, while also reminding me a little of how I often found it kind of difficult to amuse myself in large droves of kids. I know everyone must think this of themselves, or it may sound pretentious, but I just couldn't seem to find the same things interesting.
That wonder at nature is something I lost for a long while and only recently decided to recover. Life and nature are truly a thing of beauty.
I'm a bit curious about your choice of not using capital letters in the title though. It seems deliberate, and I guess it could relate to the tiny nature of the discovery, or perhaps the fact that the main character is a child.
Open for interpretation!
Excuse me for joining but I have enjoyed your comments just as much as the story, and wante to add some of my thoughs as well.
I really like short stories and one of the main features I love the most is how they can take our thoughs so far away. They gave us those powerful ideas that we, while reading, or just as soon as we finish reading, start developing more and more... Jus as you guys have done here. The power of nature, of life. Those childhood times...
I have found that nature has the feature of turning down the volume of all those noises that come with routine on our everyday life. It brings us closer to the basics... I have felt that feeling when exploring the mountains and camping at some desert beachs.
I also wanted to share with you a fragment from a story called The Zahir, by Jorge Luis Borges:
Hope you like it. Peace.
Greetings! When I read you were quoting "The Zahir", I thought it'd be Paulo Coelho's "The Zahir", which was mildly worrying, but luckily it was Borges.
I share a lot of your ideas. Certainly, through reading powerful stories we start changing the way we look at things, and appreciating each idea and experience a lot more. It makes us develop insight, and reminds us it's worth it to ponder all those things you mention. Life is, after all, a story with no author other than ourselves, and we can't write a good story without understanding its elements, right?
Well said! Life is our story... one with no author as you pointed, but with many many characters!
Borges it surely has those powerful stories that you mention. By reading them I have walked through so many paths... both physical and mental. Let me share another quote, this time from don Quixote of La Mancha:
Luckily I was quoting Borges and not Coelho! Ha, ha, ha, thanks for that... Made my day.
Peace, have a nice week!
Thanks for reading, and your personal insights!
I think the nature of a child is to be excited by new things; everything is amazing to a child.
In a group, I think, you're forced to lose a lot of that individual observation, and everything becomes more about being with the group and interacting with others and establishing some kind of rank in the pecking order and not standing out. Even if you're just with one other person, you focus on them.
One child alone, however, is free to explore anything he/she wants in any way they want.
As we got older, we lose that sense of wonder and the skill of patient observation. Some of us rediscover it.
The lower-case title text was more of a way to make it seem more casual and childlike instead of something grand and formal. These little beautiful things happen all the time all around us, and it's casual and common, but we never notice it.
Semi-relatedly, if there's one redeeming factor to social media, it's that it makes us think a little bit more about the world around us, since we're kind of looking for things to share with others. I know that as I've written more fiction recently, I'm a lot more aware of the world around me and interactions between things because I want my stories to be accurate and I'm looking for ideas and little bits of reality to weave into whatever I'm writing.
Thanks for reading!
Always a pleasure to read your stories! I really like your style, which is why I come by your blog directly when I decide to browse Steemit and read a bit. You're quite right about the dynamic when one is part of a group, even if it's merely a couple. That's the reason some things are more enjoyable in groups, while others lose a lot of what makes them great if not experienced alone.
I find your thoughts on social media quite refreshing. I've always marveled at the possibilities they introduce, but lately it's a bit difficult not to focus on the... dangerous? Yeah, the dangerous path down which it leads individuals and society at large. Dopamine hit induced loss of attention spans and self-appreciation in favor of likes and retweets and upvotes, etc...
But certainly, sharing is the "point" of social media, and it's at its best when we use it that way. I can relate, as I've begun to look for picture opportunities and stories to share in everything I experience daily. It's quite refreshing.
nice writing, but absolutely awesome photos.
Thanks! The butterfly did all the real work. I just happened to be there.
Nailed it ... it is amazing what a little patience and curiosity will reveal.
Thanks! I did grow impatient a bit with our emerging butterfly, but after 30 minutes or so he finally got up to speed on how the real world worked.
Did you get him a steemit account:)
I absolutely love this!
And immediately wondered, along with Jayna, where the dark side went? Is this the beginning of a new, more optimistic chapter in your literary career? Could there possibly be more happy endings in store for us Neg fans?
Hope springs, eternal! :D :D :D
Thanks, Neg... I'm feeling quite refreshed. ;)
😄😇😄
Pay no attention to that optimistic fellow behind the curtain!
He has been punished for his impudence.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled darkness.
LOLOLOL!
That's a stunning butterfly :) That little kid could so easily have been me. I used to (and often still do) spend all my time watching things like this. A butterfly emerging is certainly one of the more inspirational 'haiku' moments!
Where I grew up in Wisconsin (USA) we would be flooded with monarch butterflies in the spring and summer; so many green cocoons to stare at. As a kid I often marveled that you could pack so much into that tiny package, and that the wings could unfold and be so flat and straight.
Thanks! :)
Gorgeous creature and photos, and what a lovely story to accompany them. I must admit, I had to make sure this was a Neg story. Pleasant read I wasn't expecting, and brought a smile to my glum face this morning.
If I made a portion of you less glum today, then it was all worth it. Not sure if I have enough pleasantness inside me to unglum the rest of you; you may be on your own for that. ^_^
I can't help but see a similarity between the metamorphosis of this simple creature and us - looking to escape earth's hold and flying free as a glorious new being.
Mmm...now that sounds like a story worth writing. Maybe it's been done before, but our human bodies here are just mobile cocoons for some upgraded future body that leaves the earth behind. Or...maybe it's a downgraded future body, and we're forced to live on this earth as some kind of lesser creature. A cat, maybe?
So many options! :)
This is so beautiful! I loved the aspect of the child staying behind to encourage the butterfly to break free and fly. And the photos are simply gorgeous.
nice story