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

Tag: story

  • Prompt 71

    What could you do differently?

    Plane Dreaming is now planespotting. Image Credit by Me🤓

    “If” is such a big word with such a short syllable. There’s even a book titled What If, packed with hypothetical answers to scientific questions. In my Book of Life, these are my what-ifs.

    I could have continued to pursue a flight attendant career shortly after graduating from college. I once applied for a position with United Airlines in college. I made it to the open interview, where only two people were selected. I took it as a sign of not calling it a vocation, so I decided not to pursue my childhood dream. But my inborn wanderlust calls me to the vision of being a flight attendant working skybound, traveling, and meeting people worldwide.

    I could have acted differently when my team manager told me last Thursday that she would soon leave the firm this month. She was one of a few commendable supervisors/managers I have worked with. She asked me if I could work with her at her new firm. Ecstatically, I said “Yes!” because I felt insecure about my future after her departure. Being a neurodivergent, I can thrive under a patient and understanding person. My current team manager is a neurotypical supervisor who lets me work independently and contribute to the best of my abilities. While I was grateful for her kind gesture of inviting me to join her at her new firm, I should not have expressed my acceptance forthwith lest I should burden her with the weight of responsibility carried to her new place. I could have acted professionally courteously and instead congratulated her on her new future, not giving her the impression of latching on to her.

    There’s no use cryng over spilled milk, and I feel like the sorry milkmaid. Foolhardy maybe, foolish not. I could become more mature, now that I have reached the second stage of my life. But I don’t want to be harsh on myself for not being what my parents and brother and some people think I should be. Earth moves around Sun, and the Sun comes up from the east and goes down in the west. Not to acknowledge the nature of things is to ask for trouble. Likewise, I don’t want to pine for things I regret not having done or being the way I want, for life is too short to hold my what-ifs in the chapters of my life.

  • Prompt 69

    Do you spend more time thinking about the future or the past? Why?

    When I was young, I used to think about my future, jotting down the years ahead and thinking about what I would be.

    Now that I have reached the time from the wonder years, I look forward to futures, while setting my foot on present. Although I am not as faithful as I used to be, I still regard the Bible as the source of practical wisdom that has survived for thousand years:

    Matthew 6:34 Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

    Waking up every morning is like every birthday to us, and we can live these moments to the best we can, doing our daily tasks. I know I am also afraid of what tomorrow will bring, but it never knows, and honestly, I don’t want to know. Saint Teresa of Avila knew it hundreds of years ago:

    Let nothing disturb you,
    Let nothing frighten you,
    All things are passing away.
    God never changes.
    Patience obtains all things.
    Whoever has God lacks nothing;
    God alone suffice    s.

    God bless you all. ⭐️✨🍀🧚‍♀️

  • prompt 62

    If you started a sports team, what would the colors and mascot be?

    My Softball Team’s Mascots are Toro and Camille from L to R

    My softball team would be co-ed, all classes, every race and ethnicity, aged 40 and above, as long as the players can do daily exercise consisting of push-ups, sit-ups, and 2-mile runs (in their own paces) with no serious medical issues.

    I am not affiliated with the company 🤗 image creator: Google

    It would be a league of amateur sportsmen and women who want to spend their leisure actively and healthily with good, clean fun in the credo of Mans Sana in Coporore Sano (“Healthy Body, Sound Mind”). Therefore, ASICS will sponsor our team’s sporting goods, such as uniforms, shoes, socks, etc.

    Camille’s bow tie has it: red, blue, and white ⭐️

    Accordingly, the team’s color will be an American tri-color of red, blue, and white, representing Health, Inspiration, and Simplicity consecutively. The mascots will be my two cats, Toro, the Tabby, and Camille, the Puss in Black Boots, symbolizing Fellowship and Sportsmanship successively.

  • Prompt 60

    You get to build your perfect space for reading and writing. What’s it like?

    Image from Google

    Books are in my Kindle:

    The Library of Babel

    With the floating stairs

    In the times and spaces

    Reaching the stars bright

    basking in the starlight

    The dome of the library

    Holds a myriad of mystery;

    Every book in bundle

    From the Babel Kindle

    Is a magical adventure

    From humdrum to splendor

    Flying on a golden chariot

    Like Freya’s Chariot

    but with my cats cuter

    Toro and Camille together;

    I am in my perfect space

    For the alchemy of writing

    And the witchcraft of reading.

    Camille and Toro from L to R

  • Prompt 59

    How are you creative?

    It’s the stars that made me. Image from Google

    The stars met in the celestial jar and made me of Fire, Dew, and Spirit. From the jug pours the streams of ideas into the palace of the heart and the dome of the mind. I am Aquarius, whose inspirations from the outside invoke the creative spirit from within. The impulses are like flashes of fancies in a frenzy of visions springing from the mind’s spring as though to be possessed by a jolt of magical madness like the ancient sybil or oracle of Delphi.

    Writing is my hobby, and I write best when I feel like doing it without the restraint of perfect grammar or fear of infelicities of expression. Freedom and individuality are the Aquarius, and so I am. I write for leisure, which applies to three facts of Why I Write by George Orwell: (1) Sheer Egotism– I want to let the world know that I am also a practitioner of the witchcraft of writing – particularly in English – that is not a prerogative of the professional writer; (2) Aesthetic Value – The words always fascinate me, and the English language is the most excellent of all because of its richness in vocabulary and diversity in meaning. I want to write English as beautifully as Charlotte Brontë as creative as Wistawa Szymborska, or as heartfelt as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and (3) Historical Impulse – Writing on my blog and my other off-line writing will be a record of someone who lived this contemporary era that I lived and wrote something which could be attributed to archeological and anthological artifact. Who knows?

    Some say depression is their Muse who awakens their creative sphere from within. David Lynch, Jim Morrison of the Doors, and Dolores O’Riordan of the Cranberries believed so. But mine is pleasantness. I don’t want to make a Mephisolean pact to be the most adored writer. I may not be the best or even famous writer or blogger, but I write on my blog because writing as a creative value is the best way to actualize the purpose of living in search of finding who I am. When I am on the ridge, looking over the Pacific Ocean from the top of the Canyon, or watching big airplanes flying the skyways, the Muses whisper in the ear, awakening the dormant spirit yearning for the pep of creative stimulation. Also, my cats Toro and Camille are reliable and the best natural Muses who invoke the creative spirit within me. One day I want to write a short story based on them.

    My Muses: Toro and Camille from L to R

  • Prompt 42

    What positive events have taken place in your life over the past year?

    Camille: who says I am unlucky? ⭐️

    This year has been good for me because I passed my probation period at a new job with good benefits and better pay. I think my thanks go to God and my black cat Camille, whom I adopted from an animal shelter. Indeed, I love my tabby Toro, who is also from the same shelter, but since Camille has become a member of our family, my luck with finding a good job has transpired. It is said that a black cat brings luck to an unmarried single woman, so I like to think that Camille may be my Puss in Boots. 😃🍀🌻🌎⭐️