Writing to the photograph and other May challenges

 

Writing to the photograph 

May Day in Guyana and the woman in 1979 Paris is lying in bed looking at me with a half smile. One hand is on her stomach and the other hand is behind her head. I am typing up with others from around the world on Zoom to answer "Why did you choose this photograph? What does it evoke for you? What
does it remind you of?" 

We are facilitated by author Julián Delgado Lopera who is leading the Writing Club at Home: On Intimacy organised by the Museum of Modern Art in New York.  

Clock is ticking and I start typing up something and editing and so on. I am typing here because I do not want to be typing up on the blank documents which relate to work things - complex workshops, letters, emails, notes. And personal things like the deep journal - easier to write to a photograph from 1979 than to write to myself about myself.

Day before, I sat in another Medium Writer Circle, with people around the world and writing Fiction. Deciding where to go to receive what the unknown would throw at me and get out of the comfort zone.Typing fiction instead of the deep journal, the letters, emails, notes, workshop guides.

May challenges

Time though to face the other May challenges I did not choose. Noticing the golden leaf on the hibiscus tree with green and red leaves - the gold is as the leaf dries.. beautiful and standing out.

Holding camera steady, waiting for wind to stop to catch the leaf. Take a few shots, then choose one. My hand is not steady. Decide on cropping and processing to make the image which would be good to write about the challenges.

Go back to the work things. Succumb to using the Deepseek AI and write some prompts to find out how to do things which I have not done before..

A May Challenge should be that I should write these prompts and answer them myself and to resist the easiness.. or to say no to the opportunities and slide back into the comfort zone.

but I  think of the chef who comes for a piece of bamboo because he wants to try a dish where the food is stuffed inside the bamboo and then the bamboo is put on the fire to cook.. 

and remember that exploring, experimenting, curiosity .. these form the gold as I dry up..