I Write - The Bottle

At our monthly Writing is Fun meetings we usually have a Fast Write where an object, word, or other prompt is decided upon and each of us write something for five to ten minutes. There is quite a diversity of mini-writes. Some are real life recollections, some fictional vignettes, and sometimes there's a poem.

The prompt was this bottle. Here's what I wrote. The line break is where my time was up. Some in the group wanted it "finished." I did that at home and here's the "rest of the story."

The Bottle – Carol Kagan

September 2023

The bottle sat on Dr. Foster’s shelf. It was round, and short, and had a glass stopper pushed down into the neck. The afternoon sun streamed through the one crooked slat on the blinds and struck the glass.  Sparkles were scattered across the gray walls of the room.

Five-year-old Amelia was sitting near the doctor’s wide oak desk in a room with a doctor’s office antiseptic smell. Her mother and the doctor were talking but she wasn’t listening. She was fascinated not by the bottle but by what was floating in the yellow fluid inside. The thing had not floated to the top. It was unmoving and just hung in the center of the liquid. It wasn’t round or square or long but it definitely looked like food. Why would Dr. Foster keep a small piece of food in a bottle?

Although she had been told to stay still and sit on the chair, Amelia slowly bent forward from the waist to get a closer look at the bottle. Squinting her eyes, she stared then pushed the toes of her shoes on the carpet and slowly lifted up just a bit, inching forward on the seat. There were thin pieces of hair or sewing thread sticking out of it, but they were so tiny, so far away, she couldn’t tell if they were moving.

Her thoughts were interrupted when the room became quiet and still as Dr. Foster and her mother had stopped talking. She sat back on the chair and looked at Dr. Foster but she couldn’t help taking another quick look at the bottle. He turned his head to see what had captured her attention.

Pushing back his desk chair, he stood and reached up for the bottle. He knelt in front of Amelia and slowly turned the bottle around. 

   =   =   =   =   =

The front of the bottle had clear liquid in it! She could see it was a bug with a small red head and little, tiny legs and feelers in front.  He turned the bottle around and it was yellow again. She could see a bright yellow spot on the tail of the bug.

“This,” Dr. Foster said quietly, “ is a firefly or lightning bug that fell into this bottle of white corn syrup just as it was flashing its bright yellow light.”

Amelia leaned forward to get a better look. She had never seen one up close. On warm, late summer evenings she had captured some but always let them go without really looking at them.

Amelia’s eyebrows wrinkled up as she asked him, “Why do you have this?”

“There are some things that are just very unusual. That the lightning bug fell into this bottle with such a skinny opening is unusual and that it was flashing at the same time was unusual. But I don’t know why the corn syrup where the light was shining turned yellow. And I never found anyone who knows why.”

“I would like to have something unusual to keep,” Amelia said, looking at her mother who smiled at her.

“Something unusual will be happening in your family," Dr. Foster smiled. "Sometimes mothers have two babies at the same time. That’s twins. You will soon have twin brothers join your family.” 

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                HERB SAMPLER Second Edition

Buy one for yourself and consider getting a few more. They make great hostess gifts, housewarming, and anytime gifts.

The Second Edition Herb Sampler (2019) is available through Amazon. 

Just click this link to find it. 

I Write - Secrets

At our monthly Writing is Fun meeting, we choose a prompt, or topic, for the following month's writing. Limited to 2 pages so we can read them at the meeting, there is quite a diversity of interpretation on any given topic. Some write a fictional vignette, a real life recollection, and sometimes there's a poem.

The prompt for July 2023 was a Secrets. Here's what I wrote.

Secrets – Carol Kagan

Take a brief moment now and think of a secret that you’re keeping from others.

You have secrets. I have secrets and so does everyone else. It’s something we humans do - hide stuff from other people. On average, according to behavioral scientist Dr. Michael Slepian, we keep as many as thirteen secrets at any given time. According to him, after research involving more than 50,000 people worldwide, the most common ones are lies we’ve told, ambitions, mental health and financial struggles, and hidden relationships.

What is a secret? Merriam-Webster lists it as “something kept hidden or unexplained.” Slepian said, "I define secrecy as the intention to hold back some piece of information from one or more people. The information itself is the secret.” And it’s only a secret until you tell someone.

The hardest secret to keep is the one you think about most often. The weight of a secret comes from hiding it and carrying it alone. This burden can cause depression, anxiety, or shame. There can be feelings of isolation or phoniness. Yet if you are looking for support, the fear of the response may hold you back. You fear that once you tell, you have not opened a door but have removed it from its hinges and thrown it up in the attic where the secret used to hide. There would be no more hiding.

Disclosing a secret electronically is cracking the door. The secret can be seen by whoever can look in. texts, emails, social media posts like Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, and comments on electronic blogs can be found and searched. Not good places to unburden yourself.

Writing it in a diary or journal leaves that door open and a secret can be found. Sometimes it is discovered without you knowing. A casual remark or quiet question can reveal that it is no longer a secret.

Is there a way to unburden yourself from carrying the weight of a secret without telling someone? without revealing yourself in the telling? without worrying about judgment or fear of the repercussions?

The answer is “yes.”

You can reveal your secret, anonymously, to PostSecret. This is an ongoing community mail art project, created by Frank Warren in 2005, in which people mail their secrets anonymously on a homemade postcard. Selected secrets are then posted on the PostSecret website or used for PostSecret's books or museum exhibits. Reminder: They are anonymous as long as you don’t disclose information about yourself.

It is easy to tell your secret this way. Take a postcard (more if you want to tell more secrets). Tell your secret anonymously. Stamp and mail the postcard. Tips: Be brief, write legibly in big bold letters, be creative. The postcard is your canvas. Mail to

Post Secret,  28241 Crown Valley Pkwy.#F224, Laguna Niguel, CA 92677

This month I will create and mail a postcard with a secret. I will send my secret to Post Secret and next month I will tell you if I feel better.

Post Secret  https://postsecret.com/

I felt better and hardly think about it any more.

Here's a sample of postcards they receive.

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                    HERB SAMPLER Second Edition

Are you interested in growing, cooking or crafting with herbs? Here's your book.

Buy one for yourself and consider getting a few more. They make great hostess gifts, housewarming, and anytime gifts.

The Second Edition Herb Sampler (2019) is available through Amazon. 

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I Write

Well, posting on Sundays did not work. So I will post whenever. I plan to share on Sundays at Noon (and maybe just whenever I have time or the mood strikes me), various writings. 

Some of the stories are a mix of truth and fiction, other just fiction or just reporting facts or observations. 

If you click around on the blog you will find lots of articles about gardening. If you see my name at the bottom with a "MG" after it, it will be an article for the Master Gardener program. I just put them here as we don't have a blog or anywhere to put them on the internet to share.

Feel free to visit the eBlog 

https://gardenandlifenotes.blogspot.com/

You can search in the upper right box for 

I Write

Leave comments if so inclined but no punctuation comments as I am not a fan of the Oxford comma. And, after all, it is MY writing.

You can also read about my published book Herb Sampler. If you know me, I can sell you an autographed copy in person for less than Amazon charges. But I still get royalties from Amazon if you buy there but not enough to bump me up tax brackets. 

                HERB SAMPLER Second Edition

Buy one for yourself and consider getting a few more. They make great hostess gifts, housewarming, and anytime gifts.

The Second Edition Herb Sampler (2019) is available through Amazon. 

Just click this link to find it.