Free style writing

Back when I was in a creative writing class, we learned to write down our first immediate thoughts down onto paper, and then to build our stories from our first instincts. Sort of like jotting down the ingredients of a wonderful cake recipe and then as you bake, you wind up with this wonderful confection. It's really a great way to stir up story ideas, from our experiences and interactions.

recently I joined a social writers group to network on CafeMom. The moderator is terrific in throwing out ideas to nurture the writer in all of us. I'm sharing one of the prompts she gave us and my responses- my immediate reaction to the prompt.


Change:

There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered"~~Nelson Mandela

After reading this quote it got me thinking about how I have changed, especially compared to the towns I grew up in. I've become stronger, wiser, more mature, and more knowledgeable of the world around me since leaving those towns. Even when I go back, I sense that I might have been one of the only people/things that changed in one of those places.

So, my question to you is: how have you changed compared to the place(s) and the people where you grew up? Do you fit right in when you go back or do you feel out-of-place? How so?

My response:
Change, they say, is inevitable. Bodies sag, memories either increase or diminish, babies grow older, and the elderly decease. Towns can remain timeless in their setting, but people within them come and go, like the ebb of a tide, washing away the sand particles and changing the landscape. Our lives are like this, for each experience adds wisdom, and each decision forces us into different consequences. Whether the impact of the choices we make enhances us or weakens us is sometimes up to us, but there are many times when I sit alone, in silence, and imagine an omnipresence there, who may influence our lives in ways we never realize. Haven't you ever prayed so hard that things come out for the better? Haven't you ever experienced the situations that Garth Brooks expresses in his song, "Unanswered prayers?" and find that the path of your life took a different turn, and we ended up with an outcome totally unexpected? We can't always predict how change may impact us, but I think it's always worth going forward. To me, the past lives best in our memories and in our hearts. We can't always revisit and find things standing still. Time and change makes an impact there too, whether we remained or ventured forth in an adventure. We can appreciate what took place in our yesterdays, but wisdom makes us understand our fortitude today. I appreciate who I am now and can only look back at that clueless little girl/teenager/young woman that I use to be, and let her live within my heart always. I can look through eyeglasses at a faded photograph and smile at the faces looking back at me. I can appreciate that one day all of my children will leave my house and return in the future and contemplate how such a small place ever made up such a beautiful home. Such is change; such is our memories. Such is the way it has always been, and I can learn to live with that.