Writing Exercise - Eutopia
My husband is taking a writing class for college, and his professor gave him a prompt that triggered my fascination. It was about the idea of Eutopia.
Not to be confused with Utopia (a space of perfection), a Eutopia is a place in which you experienced a feeling of perfect euphoria.
He was asked to write a piece that invoked all 5 senses to describe a moment of perfect Euphoria.
***
The chill on my shoulders creates goosebumps along my arms, and I pull the soft wool wrap tighter to keep in the warmth. The salty wind tussles my hair, flinging the ponytail every which way. I close my eyes against the blowing sand, turning my back to the oncoming wind. I can feel the static in the air singing of the oncoming storm.
It's about time to head indoors, but I stay a few minutes longer. The frigid surf washes up debris knocked loose from the rocks out to sea. Long tangled bull kelp, rafts of seagrass covered in itty bitty crawling things. The ocean air smell different than normal. Pungent, full of life, full of fire. The storm is moving in and will hit the shore in just a few moments.
A hush falls, darkness descends, the surf even seems quiet before the crash as the seaborne thunderstorm breaks the beachline. The built-up static fizzles to nothingness as the lightning skitters across the sky, lighting the sunset in blues and purples. A torrential deluge of rain soaks everything and everyone who hasn't taken cover, myself included.
I didn't realize until just now that I had been holding my breath, lungs full, eyes closed. Taking in every single sensation as it washes over me. Now I can taste and smell the wet wool around my body, and the sand has hardened under the new found moisture. The seagulls have flocked into the rocks above the beach. And the white caps of the surf have resumed their loud battering with renewed fervor.
As the rainfall, with its excessive saltiness, soaks my hair and stings my eyes, I feel the tension draining from my bones, my muscles rest for the first time in as long as I can remember. My lungs fill with fresh sea air, and I feel restored. All that has transpired, all that I've lost, all that I've worked for, the demands my family holds on me, the responsibilities of work. They are things of another time. Right now, it's just me. In my head and filled with cold seawater and electrified by the static-filled air, but it's me. For just that moment in time, the world is perfect.
I trudged up the now slippery path back to the hotel, a quick shower to warm my cold skin, and I fall into the bed. Now more content, and fulfilled than I can remember for quite some time. In that moment, sleep comes. Not chasing after it and hoped for, but fully wrapping its arms around me, and dragging me down into the warmth of the blankets.
***
That is my Eutopia.
Not to be confused with Utopia (a space of perfection), a Eutopia is a place in which you experienced a feeling of perfect euphoria.
He was asked to write a piece that invoked all 5 senses to describe a moment of perfect Euphoria.
***
The chill on my shoulders creates goosebumps along my arms, and I pull the soft wool wrap tighter to keep in the warmth. The salty wind tussles my hair, flinging the ponytail every which way. I close my eyes against the blowing sand, turning my back to the oncoming wind. I can feel the static in the air singing of the oncoming storm.
It's about time to head indoors, but I stay a few minutes longer. The frigid surf washes up debris knocked loose from the rocks out to sea. Long tangled bull kelp, rafts of seagrass covered in itty bitty crawling things. The ocean air smell different than normal. Pungent, full of life, full of fire. The storm is moving in and will hit the shore in just a few moments.
A hush falls, darkness descends, the surf even seems quiet before the crash as the seaborne thunderstorm breaks the beachline. The built-up static fizzles to nothingness as the lightning skitters across the sky, lighting the sunset in blues and purples. A torrential deluge of rain soaks everything and everyone who hasn't taken cover, myself included.
I didn't realize until just now that I had been holding my breath, lungs full, eyes closed. Taking in every single sensation as it washes over me. Now I can taste and smell the wet wool around my body, and the sand has hardened under the new found moisture. The seagulls have flocked into the rocks above the beach. And the white caps of the surf have resumed their loud battering with renewed fervor.
As the rainfall, with its excessive saltiness, soaks my hair and stings my eyes, I feel the tension draining from my bones, my muscles rest for the first time in as long as I can remember. My lungs fill with fresh sea air, and I feel restored. All that has transpired, all that I've lost, all that I've worked for, the demands my family holds on me, the responsibilities of work. They are things of another time. Right now, it's just me. In my head and filled with cold seawater and electrified by the static-filled air, but it's me. For just that moment in time, the world is perfect.
I trudged up the now slippery path back to the hotel, a quick shower to warm my cold skin, and I fall into the bed. Now more content, and fulfilled than I can remember for quite some time. In that moment, sleep comes. Not chasing after it and hoped for, but fully wrapping its arms around me, and dragging me down into the warmth of the blankets.
***
That is my Eutopia.
Beautiful. I can feel myself there in that moment, too.
ReplyDeletebeautifully written! i can really feel where you went!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful piece. I really like this notion of eutopia, those places are certainly worth a name.
ReplyDelete