Remnant… yet life remains life

The day was far advanced already but night was not upon us yet… as we stepped out, we became overwhelmed by a heat wave for a few seconds, then a fresh breeze flew gently to our nostrils: breathe. At first, I did not know where we would go. As usual, I let my feet lead the way because for some reasons when I am out, they know better what my heart wants. We headed down the neighbourhood and walked silently towards the centre… passing the brewery, I noticed the birds, or rather their joy of life… it is a very contagious thing: joy. From that moment on, I paid attention to everything and my heart started lightening up. I could not then put my finger on what was really happening inside of me, all I can say is that it made me feel really good. The lighter my heart, the wider my smile and the higher was my head as I walked.

My feet made us cross the road and led us to a great walking path on the east side of town. I then remembered that we had talked about this place many times. In the town’s history, it was said that within the paths and forest lay the ghost town. I became impatient to discover it and my enthusiasm showed no limit.

After a while, boring if you ask me, we arrived to a crossroad and decided to follow the path that looked the wildest even though it was a marked one. As we stepped on it, the trees formed an archway from one side to the other. It looked very strange because very uneven and disorganized. It was not of man doing, that much we could see… I looked at the forest and it felt like buildings were appearing from thin air… one second I could see them the other they were nowhere to be seen… I thought that my imagination was playing tricks on me, but the phenomenon happened repeatedly until I started talking about it. The magic was still there though…

We reached some kind of entrance… a remnant of man’s hand… it looked like the entrance of a fortress and from that point on my imagination found no rest… I would talk of the past, say that the town’s people used to live behind the walls of the fortress where wise ones guided them towards their utmost potential. They were exploiting silver in the now abandoned mines… the silver would then be used to redistribute the natural energy to the people who worked so hard for it… Silver was the key and glass was not yet discovered… Eventually, greed grew stronger in a few men’s heart and the peace was broken. Before the wise ones completely disappeared, silver was transformed into iron… and for years to come, people came to town to work in the mines. The old ways were forgotten within a century… Today, the wise ones are haunting the forest in hope of finding someone willing to bring back what was once a beautiful and lively town… Hence the ghost town.

Of course this is only a child’s heart talking… The town has a very interesting story that is not the one I invented, yet I intend to discover it, little by little and maybe the ghost town will appear to me when I have explored enough. The walk we had that day was the first of many others to come.

© Claire Perez E.
[Paintings of Life]

 

Line between life and death

Absent minded I followed my feet on what seemed to be an abandoned road. I had seen these parts of town before but they had never stricken me the way they did that day. Indeed, without realizing it I had almost stopped, yet my mind began wandering intensely in every direction.

On each side of the road stood proudly old plane trees whom shaded their beheaded siblings. They were both a joyful and sad sight. There were no regular pattern despite the many resemblance, but it felt like the frontier between life and death was non existent…
one light, the other shadow…
one living tree for a dead one…
like one was keeping an eye on the other…
It felt morbid!
Furthermore, the hide and seek game that played the sun with the clouds accentuated the gloomy feeling I perceived from the place.

Beyond the plane trees stood two ranks of empty houses that reflected one another from one side of the road to the other. I had no fear in my heart as I walked on this fine edge that was the road… Only now that I think and write about it, the dizziness comes to my head…
For a few seconds I wondered how this tiny neighbourhood used to be; how was it behind the now closed shutters; I could almost hear the laughter of distant children playing with what could have been a swing. My mind did not dwell too long on it though… indeed, the present caught up with the past and all I could see was life and death dancing under the sun on a windy rhythm.

I was the only human which represented life as it was there… today however, wild flowers and weeds had become masters… little by little, nature was reclaiming a piece of land that mankind had borrowed not so long ago. The picture was a bit sad as the houses, giants of concrete, would never host people again… as I was contemplating, I heard what sounded like a creaking swing… I turned and probably moved one step towards the noise: it stopped… it was undoubtedly a bird, I thought… yes, but what kind? My imagination started racing, yet my mind was so absorbed in this passive observation that it focused again on the houses…

How was it inside nowadays?
Was there anything left from human civilization except for the walls and rare cables? Could they be renovated so life as one knows it would take over once more? If it could… should it?
I suddenly sensed rather than saw that the interior would look like the outdoors… not even concrete could prevent wild life to bloom. I smiled. I was sad that no humans were living there anymore because I believed that many could have enjoyed the surroundings; on the other hand my heart rejoiced to the idea that no matter what, life prevailed even a few feet away from death…
life part of death and death part of life…

© Claire Perez E.
[Paintings of Life]

 

If I were…

A friend of mine asked an interesting question: if you were a colour, a fault, a feeling, a perfume, a phobia, a sensation… what would you be? So I answered:

If I were a COLOUR, I would be green…
Not from Mars nor with envy;
But by Nature.
The green for growth,
The green of healing.

If I were a FAULT, I would be a lie…
The one of my hiding, even from myself,
Behind a mask I believed prettier;
Veiled like so, I used to watch the world.

If I were a FEELING I would be Hope…
Charged with freedom it would open the door of my heart to the rest of the world, from where Love and Compassion would take their flight towards other beings.

If I were a PHOBIA, I would be “agora” and “claustro”…
Yet, I like great spaces and small cosy nests.
Yes but I get dizzy all alone!
Yes but the crowd bothers me!

If I were a PERFUME, I would be sweet in winter,
I would be fresh and light in summer…
A bit of vanilla by the fire,
A bit of lemon in the June’s evenings.

If I were a SENSATION, I would be silence…
With my eyes closed on everything around me,
I would then see all that is beautiful without even looking.

Therefore happy, my heart heals itself of the lies…
Free to get drunk with its favourite perfumes whatever the season,
It challenges and conquers the phobias that crowd it…
and in a deep silence gives back to the world what it gets from it every day.

© Claire Perez E.
[Paintings of Life]

 

P.S. I Love You

From the director of “The Devil Wears Prada”, “P.S. I love You” is no comedy and no drama. Alright, it has a little bit of comedy and a bit more of drama… Yeah, I don’t like genres either, to limited! It is actually beautiful in all its sadness… I will not tell what it is about, even though the trailer might spoil that for you. From the start I was like “what? no…” but then the magic happened. Do you know what love can do? This movie reminds us what it can do. It does not give lessons, it is just a reminder of our love, our dreams and how amazing one can be when one chooses to believe. So, my advice: watch and enjoy it.

PS: It is yet another book adaptation.

 

Planet Earth

The most amazing documentary I have come to watch! I’ve been blown away by the quality and the perfection of the images shown in the 5 DVD documentary Planet Earth. If you have not seen it, just do! My words will never reach the level of what I saw months ago and since then remained crystal clear in my mind.

This is a must-see must-have
I cannot wait to see it again

Truly!

 

Mr Magorium’s Wonder Emporium

Yesterday evening, I watched yet another “kids/family” movie. I had read many skeptical opinions about it, and the note on the International Movie Data Base was not so high. No matter, Dustin Hoffman and Nathalie Portman were enough to convince me and watch the movie.

I laughed many times and became a child again… even though my child spirit is most of the times awake… In many ways, this movie is cute but what I like very much is the point of view… the story telling comes from a young kid.

The main words are believe in magic and in your dreams no matter what!

 

Hello world!

Welcome to my WordPress.com blog. I have done a lot of thinking lately about my presence on Internet. I came to the conclusion that I was very confused about it. So, I am regrouping

I have a website that presents who I am professionally. This website is Couleur Words.

When it comes to my writing, I am part of Helium.com community where I recently started to write articles for which I am paid. That is my job!

Nevertheless, writing is not only a job to me, it is also who I am. Unfortunately, when one is part of a writing communities one must comply to rules. It is a good thing but also a curse when one wishes to write just a little about anything. I like to talk about movies, books, music… I do not like to follow the rules of review writing… I do not wish to write reviews, I wish to write about what I like and the way I like.

Hence this blog. This is where I will let my mind and thoughts wander without limits.

For my own amusement, I do have a profile on Facebook where I made a few “cyber friends”.

Enjoy your reading.