Feeling Like a Ray of Sunshine

GiaB writing prompt 2 #6 the sun

The Sun

A haiku

I was feeling great until the rain ended things the damage; tragic

I was feeling like a million bucks.

I had no idea! I wish she would have understood. I never had a chance to be heard. Honestly, whenever my life would take a turn for the good, my ex-best-friend would always throw a fireball and end our relationship.

We no longer talk, but that’s another story that took place in inning three. And the game was called due to indefinite rain. Three strikes in our relationship, and that was it for me.

Now, back to inning two

This incident where I was feeling like a ray of sunshine took place about thirteen years ago. I had lost my sister-in-law in March, suddenly. I then decided by June to get my baby weight off after having my son. Newsflash, he was not a baby any longer. He was now over three years old.

Anyhow, it took me six months to lose thirty pounds. I had just gotten home from working out at the gym. An instructor at the gym had told me how good I was looking. I was beaming!

When I got home, my girlfriend had called. This is where the story went straight to the dugout and I struck out. That was strike number two!

The heated conversation

The phone rang, and we started chatting like normal. However, I asked my girlfriend how she felt because she had just had lip surgery to have a small spot of skin cancer removed. She replied that she was doing okay. She couldn’t really tell what it looked like because she had a bandage on from surgery.

Changing the subject quickly, she asked me what I was doing for the day? I thought I would share the uplifting story of my compliment with her. She knew I had recently lost thirty pounds, and I had started working out at the gym. I told her how an instructor made me feel great by noticing my efforts and telling me how good I looked.

Sharing the sad ending – when I struck out, and the field flooded

She immediately went into a rage and told me how insensitive I was. Saying how she had just had lip surgery, and I was beaming! She hung up on me.

The moral to this story: I honestly had no idea what she was going through. I had never seen skin cancer before. I had no idea that her surgery was traumatic. I hadn’t seen her in person as we had only talked over the phone. She told me a small spot. I was clueless. Had she allowed me space to share my lack of knowledge or empathy, it would have saved a simple misunderstanding.

I wish she would have understood my side. Unfortunately, she hung up on me that day, and we didn’t talk for years until I reached out through a card. We never talked about our feelings, and I was always the one to apologize in our relationship.

There are always two sides to a story, and this is mine, which was promoted by Victor Sarkin, and writing prompt #2 — 6. The prompt encouraged me to write a poem about, The Sun. I’ve included this short non fiction story and my haiku. Never assume somebody knows what you are going through.

I would like to thank Victor Sarkin and also, Carolyn Hastings for inviting me to join this writing prompt submission.

I want to inspire another writer who might be feeling moved to join — to please do so. I’m tagging a few other writers who also compose poetry.

I hope they will join this prompt, but otherwise, please feel free to take a peek at their profiles. I think you might enjoy their work.

Ali, Hamsalekha, Leilani Belle, Michelle Renee Kidwell, and last but not least, Sahil Patel. No pressure; only sharing an invite.

Here are more details on this prompt and a link to the submission guidelines:

I have found great healing in finally sharing my side of the story. Thank you for your time. My ego must have needed to shout today!