The Church

Not a winner, but I like this piece I submitted at Pictures, Poetry and Prose. It's obvious that I've been feeling melancholy and mushy lately. And before you ask, this is a completely fictional piece. Frank is NOT The Husband. Sheesh. TH reads this blog. I'll never hear the end of it if he thinks I've been trying to escape from him!

Our inspiration was a photograph of a quaint little church, taken by Dan Felstead. Our suggested prompt: "I stood looking across the field at the church and knew I had to...."

My submission:



There are days when I just need to get away. Take some time for myself away from work, home, Frank, the kids.

Today was one of those days.

I don’t know what’s gotten into me these days. I can’t seem to focus on anything. And my emotions are riding a crazy rollercoaster ride. I’m up. I’m down. This morning was the icing on the cake. The quiche didn’t work out and I completely lost it. Just started bawling. Frank tried to console me, but I pushed him away and ran out of the house. I just needed some time. Alone.

It was nice, actually, just wandering through the fields. I haven’t done that since I was a kid. Crops are coming in nicely. We’ve had a lot of rain lately, which is nice after that dry spell. But today was nice and clear. I followed Old Man Johnson’s fence to that stand of trees, planning to sit a spell and just let my mind wander. Then I heard music. And singing.

I glanced over and saw the old church that Nana used to take me to on Sundays. She always said that everyone should have a relationship with some sort of higher being. She said it didn’t matter who or what it was, just so long as you believed that there was something bigger than you. I didn’t know what she meant by that at the time. I just really liked being with her. She always smelled of Ivory soap and kept candy in her purse.

I listened to the singing for a while. It was so beautiful. People working together in harmony to make something so wonderful. I stood looking across the field at the church and knew I had to go in.

I suddenly knew what Nana was talking about.