Flame, Glass and Ink are Poems, essays, and reading notes by Stefania Joori Suh

Tag: dailyprompt

  • Prompt 55

    What was the last thing you did for play or fun?

    Title song: “With or Without You” by U2

    Tailwinds, Blueskies…

    Some do birdwatching, some Trainspotting, but mine is planespotting. I went for it last Saturday, and it was such fun that I recorded the event as a video log to preserve the intoxication of the spirit, watching a magnificent view.

    My brother and I went to a park near LAX (Los Angeles International Airport) to watch planes in close-ups because I am always fascinated with magnificent airplanes – not private jets, such as the Cessna -. There’s something about big airplanes with their majestic appearance, like giant whales in the sea skies. Come to think of it, rather than relating planes to birds because of the wings, associating them with whales (for Bowing 747) or dolphins (for Airbuses) is all the more like it because of their streamlined body shapes. I should have become a flight attendant, which would have been perfect to realize my dream of being in the skies.

    At the magnificent view of the airplanes, my heart was racing along the planes like Icarus, who dashed against his father’s warning not to fly close to the sun. I wanted to fly in the skies and go to places I had never been. I bet my yearning was what Icarus must have felt after escaping imprisonment with his father, Daedalus, in the labyrinth in Crete. Planespotting was exhilarating and fun. 🌟

  • Prompt 54

    List your top 5 grocery store items.

    My cart has bread too! 😆

    My staple grocery store items consist of these:

    1) Fat-free milk 🥛- I love a glass of ice-cold milk at lunch. It gives me a refreshing jolt and smooth relaxation during the day at work.

    2) strawberry 🍓 jam – of all the fruity jams, strawberry jam is my favorite because I like the sweetness that only strawberry can provide with the unique effect of the seeds that come with the flavor.

    3) Milka chocolate 🍫- I know dark chocolate is healthier, but I can’t resist the irresistible charm of the rich texture and smooth taste of milk chocolate. Milka chocolate is my favorite brand.

    4) Zero Coke 🥤- there’s something magical about zero Coke because while it tastes like regular Coke, it has no sugar or that stuffy feeling Diet Coke produces when taken inside. I know that it isn’t as healthy as water, but I don’t drink zero Coke as if it were water. 😅 And I love it.😂

    5) instant noodles or soup 🍲- I don’t cook. Maybe it’s because my mom cooks -still, yes! 😅-, and honestly, I am not a good cook. So, I take advantage of the modern convenience in food. It’s simple and tasty.😚

    In retrospect, I am not a healthy eater in the strictly puritanical sense, but I can’t forego the above items and adopt the Pythagorean healthy diet because then life will be Deb and dreary. 😑

  • Prompt 53

    Describe a man who has positively impacted your life.

    My Dad 🤓

    I hate the book title “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” with forthright prejudice against the rule of “Don’t judge the book by its cover.” There’s no such thing as such classification of Dad, but My Dad, Your Dad, or Our Dads, no matter where you come from. My Dad is not rich, and I am not certainly wealthy, but I have a great inheritance from him.

    The dossier unfolds the following legacies: a wealth of knowledge ranging from philosophy to literature, a love of reading and writing, an affinity for seas and sea voyages, and a milk of human kindness. My dad is the best person to talk about various interests, from Socrates to our favorite classic film, the Bicycle Thief, to Palestrina, to Bach, and the subjects or knowledge many people do not know or are not interested in. I am proud of him for being such an erudite man who wears his knowledge with a heart of gold in an unassuming manner.

    My dad is now 85 years old, and I have reached the point where I should prepare for the day he will depart from this world. Honestly, I am both scared of it and disheartened by the fact of our lives. Sometimes, he tells me he is sorry for not having much money for a better living environment, but I am grateful for his great inheritance, which is rare and priceless. ⭐️💫✨

  • prompt 52

    Is your life today what you pictured a year ago?

    While I am debating whether life today is what I pictured a year ago, I like to think that it is better sailing with fewer storms and more blue skies in the uncharted sea of life than last year’s voyage.

    Last year’s voyage was arduous to sail through Ocean of Life because my ship was too frequently hit against rocks, met with the sirens that charmed me with the promise of stable sustenance kept on the mirage of Treasure Island, and stranded alone on the watery main with no sight of the kingdom of the shore. Providence, the faithful call, Fate to those who feel left out of favor of the divine, was the cruelest at the whims and caprice of whoever was toying with my lost star. But then, at the lowest ebb, I saw a tide coming toward my ship, and I took it at the flood.

    So, I am steering the master key with my trusted sailors, the First Seamen Toro and the Second Seaman Camille, on board. We are together for this sailing, and with the more tailwinds and blue skies, I hope I can reach the land on the other end of the rainbows where my lost star is waiting for me, still sparkling excellently bright and gorgeously brilliant.

    My trusty sailors Toro and Camille: “Sail Away, Captain!”

  • Prompt 51

    What skills or lessons have you learned recently?

    You can be firm and still be nice. It is easy to seem, but it requires learning how to do it, especially in a work setting. Working at a big, busy personal injury firm, I have learned how to speak and write effectively in acquiring information and obtaining documents courteously and friendly. 😎

    Dealing with law enforcement for police-related reports and medical providers for confidential medical records has improved my interpersonal communication skills. I used to have butterflies when speaking to people, not to mention the police. Still, since my duties involve direct communication with them daily for our clients, I have chased off those butterflies and gained confidence in speaking in public. Still, one thing is to be overcome, which is to interact with those who are quick-tempered and callous. 🤨

    Shakespeare said life is a play, our world is a stage, and we are the actors and actresses of the play. That said, I should be a good actress in performing my role beautifully with fittingly chosen lines to keep my composure still and demeanor professional.⭐️🌼🧚‍♀️

  • Prompt 50

    What cities do you want to visit?

    Cities are a symbol of civilization and well of culture. It’s cosmopolitan and utilitarian in that all social classes mingle and become a parliament of humanity. I prefer cities to the lesser versions of human dwellings because of these reasons, and there are cities I want to visit on my bucket list.

    Rome – Built by the Rolumus and Lemus, bred by a wolf mother, Rome was an eternal city with boundaries stretching from the east and the west, the North and the south. All roads led to Rome, and I want to walk down the same streets that ancient Romans trod upon with their own stories. So much so that Edgar Allen Poe summarized Rome thus: “The glory that was Greece and the grandeur that was Rome.” People say that today’s Rome is nothing like ancient Rome, but they don’t see that the place memories enveloping the city’s aura are lingering, affecting the minds of the people living or visiting there. Thousand years have passed, but the spirit of the place is immortal.

    Vatican City – My primary purpose will be seeing Michelangelo’s magnum opus on the ceilings of the Sistine Chapel. Reading Michelangelo and the Pope’s Ceiling by Ross King has egged me on to witness the magnum force of art as a manifestation of the ideal appreciated by the faculty of the mind affected by imagination. It would have been much more wonderful to visit Vatican City when Pope John Paul Second was the Bishop of Rome.

    Other cities have histories of millennium years, but Rome and Vatican City still exist with vivacity and alacrity. They may be crowded, expensive, and trivialized, but they were, have been, and will be so in posterity. This also makes me think that our posterity might feel the same way about the places where we live now. Hence are my wishful cities. 🧚‍♀️⭐️🌍