No Sight

I slowly remove my slippers and let my feet slowly touch the soft, cool sand. I stand there for a while and wait as my feet are engulfed by the smooth grains. I then walk slowly, feeling the cool each time my feet touches the sand. As I continue walking the sound of crashing waves just gets stronger and stronger. The roar of the ocean is all that could be heard and it just sends this relaxing feeling down my spine. I stop and take a moment to take this all in. Then as I just stand there I feel the cool breeze graze my skin. The wind hits my face and just blows my hair back. This prompts me to continue moving forward. A few steps forward and the ground below me starts to feel a bit more solid. It also starts to get a wet. I hear a crash and a few seconds later my feet are hugged by the cool water of the sea. This pulls away and I find my feet buried in the soft sand. I just take a deep breath and instantly the welcoming smell of salt water fills my nose. I just continue to take these deep breaths. At that moment I am completely relaxed. I have nothing in mind and have a big smile resting on my face.

Follow the Leader

It was a little past mid night and I was still up; just staring at the screen of my laptop while the rest of the household was already in bed. Dinner was several hours ago and I was getting hungry. I decided to get up, and proceeded down the stairs and on to the kitchen. I switched the lights on and brought the kitchen to life amidst the dead of night. I headed to the ref, looked inside and finally picked out a cup of yoghurt to eat. I set this down on the counter as I reached for a spoon. When my gaze drew back to my yoghurt I saw something moving. Then as I look closer I noticed several things moving.

A trail of ants were marching by close to where I had placed my cup of yoghurt down. With nothing else to do I decided to watch on as I slowly started to eat my little snack. The line just kept moving, one after the other. Moving in such uniformity, as if they were just copying the ones in front of them, the ants followed one another. They would all just follow this single file, just following the one in front. There was this one little fellow though that went off track and instantly you could see how confused the little thing got. Even if its fellow ants were right next to it, it was completely lost. It was going nowhere fast. Then after a while, it finally smartened up and traced its steps back to the trail.

Curious as to where they were going, I followed the trail that lead right into a spot where a bunch of crumbs had fallen. The ants were picking up these little masses of food over their heads and marched back from where they came. Nobody had to tell this to them, they just did it. They knew what they had to do.

This little world of the ants began to interest me. "Why were they like this?" I thought to myself. Then it hit me, they had purpose. They knew what they had to do and what they wanted to do. They marched on with all boldness because they had a goal. Once they lost this goal, they would wander, confused and getting nowhere. But once they set their priorities, they easily got back on track.

Then I hit the end of my little dip in the pool of my thought because I had finally finished my cup of yoghurt. I took one last look at the little black dots and could not help but wear a smile on my face.

Reaction to Midsummer

The actual plot of the story is actually very simple. Everything could have happened in around 15 minutes. To put it in simplest terms, it's just a guy meeting a girl. And that's all there is to it.

Interestingly though, the story is still very captivating. I could not stop reading the story, just waiting for a twist or something out of the blue to happen. With this in mind, after i had finished reading the story, i felt that there was something missing. It just seemed like a perfect day without a conflict. Without a conflict a story would be dead boring. But not so for this story. The author was able to write it in such a way that he really enticed you to imagine the scene. That was where the thrill of the story was. He described the area and characters so well that a clear image just jumped into my head the moment i read what he was describing. His play of words just brought the story to life. His constant use of figures of speech added much character to the story. To add to all of this, i could not help but imagine a a perfect scene with perfect characters; pretty much like an Amorsolo painting. All throughout the story i was seeing Amorsolo paintings moving and acting out the scenes.

What truly brought this story to life was not so much the plot itself but in how the image of the scene just danced in my head the whole time i was reading the story. That's what made the short narrative so interesting. That's what kept me hooked.