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Esteemed blogger and author, Priya, at Weathermewell, recently published a lovely book, Crossing Streams, filled with personal reflections about emotions. 
Her ponderings are grouped into the following eleven categories:
Happiness, Anger, Love, Grief, Hate, Hope, Fear, Wonder, Sadness, Contentment, Selfishness
In celebration of Priya’s accomplishment, I decided to design a writing prompt from the chapters of her book. And in celebration this auspicious month, I limited my word count to one per day of the month, hence 31. Here is my feeble attempt:
I wonder about your words of anger, hate and fear. Did you hope to destroy my love? Did your selfishness trump my grief? Did my sadness bring you happiness and contentment?
I welcome participation from you, my readers. Would you like to play along? Feel free to add your own 31-word short in a comment to this post. Don’t forget to mention each of Priya’s 11 emotions in your short. Let’s have some fun this month.
Emotions on a Roller Coaster: going down SelfishnessAngerHateGriefFear, hit bottom with Sadness, climbing up WonderContentmentHappiness, and reach the pinnacle of Love. Then – begin again…
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Fab! I got a wee bit seasick from the up ‘n down on this one, Ursula! You put amazing motion into your emotions.
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Is it selfish for me to hope to live in a state of contentment and happiness, my days filled with a child-like sense of wonder ?
But now boxes of old photographs,tipped across my bedspread, overwhelm me with a sense of sadness, fear for my future, and grief for what has not been.
Luckily anger and hate don’t seem to enter the picture.
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Lovely word images, Sybil. A bit over 31 words, but lovely just the same.
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Nice exploration on emotions and how they cause our reactions. When one is filled with anger and resentment it is difficult to appreciate love and see the beauty of the surrounding world.
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Thanks. It was a fun little exercise.
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First of all I am waiting to read Priya’s book. She is one of my most favorite writers.
I liked your 31 words a lot. 🙂
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Thanks! A lot. 🙂
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What a challenge! There are 11 ‘required’ words, leaving only room for 20 more words. Wow. I look forward to your other creations.
I have her book by my bedside. It’s so nice to hold her words.
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You are so right about Priay’s book, Lenore. Sorry. I think I threw out a nearly impossible challenge. This was my first attempt at such.
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I began to type away my ‘entry’ for the challenge, but it is bloody difficult, Linda! Gosh. I must come back in paste my response — done in leisure.
You are a darling, I’ve already said that. But I suppose I could say it again instead of trying to constantly curb this strong urge to come to Idaho and give you a biiiiiiig hug. Thank you.
And might I also thank Lenore and Arindam here for being such sweethearts, too? I like it when someone says they like to ‘hold’ my words. Such comfort!
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Oh dear. I’ve never done one of these writing prompt challenges on my own. I think perhaps I laid out impossible restrictions. I’ve gotten a couple of good responses. But I realize, I may have set the bar a bit too high. Sorry about that.
Hey….come to Idaho! I need a hug! I even have room for Bartrahn (?) and Bela!
And yes, it is nice to hold your words just before drifting off to the dream world!
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Bhartan and Bela would love that, I’m sure. An easy way to remember B’s spelling, and pronunciation, is to remember the common name Barton. Pronounce it as such, because the Hindi name is pretty close to that. And to remember the spelling, just add an ‘h’ after the B. I’ll permit the ‘o’ after the ‘t’. 🙂
I do not know how difficult the challenge is. I need to really try it out first. What I do know is that you have made an attempt to bring the book ‘out in the open’. For me, that makes you absolutely fabulous.
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So sorry. I should have taken the time to look up Bhartan’s name. I knew I had it wrong. But it was late and I was lazy. When you arrive in Idaho, I will have Bhartan’s name on a banner in front of my house…properly spelled. 😉
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Ha! Such fun! The poor guy’s in for a lot of attention, which, incidentally, makes him run for cover. Dunno what I’ll do for his birthday tomorrow. It is so special. With Bela being around for the first time, and all that.
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Here I am, again. Bela’s asleep for a bit, B’s gone out, tea’s made. Now I can attempt this challenge:
Drawing fear, sadness from wells of anger, grief, hate. Too busy I am for happiness. Hope missing, contentment a laugh. In selfish love for me, I wake. Lo! Wonderment! I can live.
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You lived up to my high expectation of you, Priya! You wove wonderment out of 32 words!
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32? Shucks. I knew I use one word too many!
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This is a tough one to do without sounding like a list! Here goes…
Hot happiness lentils in
Bulgar bowls of anger
Steaming grief, hate, fear…
…trailing wisps of hope.
Taste the wonder of sadness,
ache of contentment.
Sated.
Pure selfishness of
Fat, stuffed love.
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Wow! Stunning, Dia, as always. Your words take my breath away.
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Whoops…meant to say congratulations Priya and bravo on your new book!
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What lovely words above, Dia. And thank you.
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Last time when I visited this post, I just pressed the “like” button. I was trying to see the way you wrote those lines in 31 words. I took a pen and paper, and started trying. It took me fifteen minutes to write it. But somehow, I didn’t like what I wrote. Hehehe.
And now, here I’m once again. But I can’t find that paper. May be, I should try again.
I really liked your lines. Hmmm. I need to learn a lot. 🙂
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Oh Nandini, thanks for your kind words. . . in lieu of your 31 words and for taking the time to stop by twice. You know, I didn’t use any formula or magic or anything. I just strung the little devils together as quickly as I could, with very little planning. I am fascinated, however, by some of the lines that other commenters have come up with.
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Anger, strangely, produces contentment. Drowning in fear and grief, we cling to happiness. Can we reject hate and choose hope? Might love replace sadness? Or is that selfishness talking? I wonder.
There you go, Linda. In alphabetical order. But please don’t tell Priya — she’ll say I’m just showing off.
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My lips are sealed, Mr. Bright Boy! Nicely pulled off.
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Saala.
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