Week in Seven Words #451

complicated
What happens, he asks, if you've made a great mistake or committed a serious unethical action, but since then your life has grown around it? The mistake has become a part of the structure of your life, and in ways that are helpful to other people. How do you make amends under those circumstances, without causing greater harm?

elegance
Glasses clinking over a table softened by white cloth and sprays of flowers.

green
It's easy to be wise, he says, when you're young and naive. He used to give people marriage advice before he got married. He laughs now, thinking back on that time, decades ago.

named
One of the benches in the park has a plaque dedicated to a homeless man. It was his bench.

nimbleness
In the light spitting rain, the white columns of the fountain jet up, and the top of each column breaks away to leap like a liquid acrobat.

spoonfuls
She comes over to cook, and throughout the afternoon I enjoy tastings.

water
A misty rain tickles my forehead. Sea gulls circle in the mist, and a duck lifts away from the river.

Week in Seven Words #377

behold
Revisiting the same text, I find in it something new. Better yet, I have someone to discuss it with.

charmed
There's a snow globe approach to history that preserves a golden moment. It's untainted and unchanging, this little world of pretty homes and valleys and people smiling without end. It never existed outside of the glass, but that doesn't matter to the people who admire it.

gritted
The meal is in some ways about endurance. It's about not losing my temper when faced with crassness, disrespect, and a smarminess that's tempting to smack off someone's face.

obsolescence
As he opens his mouth, he realizes that no one he wants to talk to is paying attention. He looks around the room once more, hoping for eye contact, before settling back in his chair and staring at his plate.

peep
The tree leans over the path to inspect the fire hydrant hidden in the shrub.

pinch
The mistake was preventable, I was careless, and I hurt someone else too.

satisfying
The soup makes for a complete meal. Each spoonful of this amazing soup is a blessing.

Week in Seven Words #320

crisply
It's a crackling park. Branches bristle, evergreen needles scritch, mulch grinds underfoot.

enchanter
The branches wave about the tree's crown as if it's casting a spell.

frantic
In everything, she chases love, sincere unflinching love, withheld from her as a child and longed-for decades later.

loosening
Shoulders relaxing as I settle at the table with a glass of sparkling wine.

masquerade
Forehead-slapping moment when the words I've rehearsed come out costumed in a different meaning and tone.

nonfulfillment
"They don't know how to write," he says of his students. "They don't care. They think they have nothing worth sharing. Maybe they don't!"

worrying
Sucking on cough drops as the wind nips my cheeks and throat.

Week in Seven Words #202 & #203

202

accord
Comfortable silence over pasta and fish.

concavity
Small fingers bending like ski slopes on the heavy keys of the piano.

conifer
The scent of evergreens on street corners.

demands
Having to look at it again through the eyes of a beginner, I see how much goes into piano-playing. Learning to identify the keys, learning to read the notes, developing the coordination in the hands. It's difficult. A love of music is a large part of what sees you through.

implore
The jingle bell sounds are the panhandlers rattling their cups.

limbed
Trees aren't dead in winter. They're expressive in ways they can't be when covered in leaves.

slip-ups
People behaving foolishly, young people who don't think things out well enough, are stuck with their indiscretions: photographs floating around the web, videos, comments that can't be deleted. Like having to walk around everywhere with several squares of toilet paper stuck to the bottom of their shoes.