Everyday Canvas

Sandcastles, Flags, Living Ghosts

Prompt: "Only later did I realize that what I had thought were hours spent merely learning to build sandcastles were actually hours spent learning to build the foundation of a good life. A life of integrity and fairness, generosity, and principles. A life of love." What are your reflections on this?

======

We may work at something that may or may not stay or be appreciated, but if we keep at it even when our work is swept away, we learn how to be persistent, how to be courageous, how to be fair to ourselves. This is no easy task, to stay the course even if misunderstood, judged, or considered crazy for our dreams.

Still, we keep at it, not minding other people’s scornfulness and regardless of making an impact or becoming a trailblazer. This way, we learn what our values are and how to live by them. That is the integrity of the spirit, which urges a person to live his or her life doing what they love, with fairness and generosity toward others, learned from being fair and generous toward oneself.

Prompt: Today is Flag Day. Write anything you want about flags.

=========

Flags are symbols. They can be symbols for countries, sports teams, or any concept one can imagine.

When we flag something, we mark it to draw attention to it.

Flag Day commemorates the adoption of the flag of USA. It is not the flag itself, which is a piece of cloth with stars and stripes printed on it, but what the flag symbolizes—our nation united in the pursuit of liberty and justice-- that we cherish and respect.

Prompt: “In my experience, ghosts are made up only of the living, people you know are out there but are forever out of range.”
Adam Johnson, The Orphan Master's Son
What do you make of this quote? Are there any living ghosts in your life or in the life of someone you know?

============

Have you ever met someone who went away to a strange country and never returned? If his or her memory is with you, that memory is a living ghost.

Sometimes, a very good time with friends can be a living ghost, too, especially if those friends disappear or change and you never have as good a time as then, that good time’s memory becomes a living ghost, too.

Or you might have had some big success in life never to be repeated in any shape or form, that success’s memory can be a living ghost, also, to haunt you for the rest of your life.

Then, to the contrary of the above examples, a memory of a negative experience can haunt you, too. Some people call it PTSD.

In my life, I have had many experiences, some good others not so good, and yes, their memories I cherish, but I don’t consider them ghosts because they do not haunt me. If they were to haunt me, I would feel a yearning to re-live them or I would be disturbed by them.