Simple Pleasures
" Tis a gift to be simple, tis a gift to be free." --Shaker hymn
Someone once asked me when I had felt the most alive. I pondered for some time and let the memories walk slowly across my consciousness. A vision of a cold, crisp, sunny , fall day kept coming back to me, the kind of day that invites you to be outdoors, and when you get there, treats you to a blast of air-conditioned air. Everything seemed to be changing as if someone had sent a notice saying, "fall is leaving, winter is coming..beware!" I had gone to Manito Park with my sister Jessi. We wanted to take a last stroll down to the duck pond and be out again away from the stale, indoor air. We hoped to re-live a moment from our youth and experience the simple joy of being alive.
In preparation for our outdoor expedition, we snuggled into fleece jackets and dug old ski hats out of the back of the drawer. Our fingers were stuffed into thermal mitte...
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... Instead, these pure and simple moments represented the best life had to offer: the ordinary pleasures of being with my sister, enjoying the day, and carousing with leaves. These timeless pleasures didn't necessitate cost or equipment and felt as wonderful today as they had in my Grandma's time. They brought a smile to my face. Most of all, I knew those leaves would come again. As sure as the sun rises in the morning, there would be another chance to be a little kid.
Her children are her happiest memory: "Granny wished the old days were back again and the children young and everything to be done over" (2). Despite going through such hardships in raising her children, she wished to do it again; suggesting that despite her many injustices she did eventually find love, peace, and reason within her life. It had been difficult "but not too hard for her" (3)....
Minorities and Policing: Unfairly Treated If we look at the past, we can see that there is no warm tradition of community cooperation between the African-American community and law enforcement. Minorities and Policing is an important topic because it deals with issues pertaining to how minorities are treated by the police. Racial profiling and social injustice are important areas when dealing with unfair treatment of minorities. 1.
Furthermore, I do believe this is an issue that has serious implications on minorities communities. The ongoing police violence is making people see law enforcement officers as untrusted because they see that instead of these officers protecting their right to life they are the ones who violating it.
People in high power, such as government officials, have a power to control whatever and whoever they want. In Time Out of Joint, by Philip Dick, Dick demonstrates this power, in which the United States government creates a world and brainwashes hundreds of people into preserving a town to seem like it is in 1959, in order to gain military advantage. In the novel, the government takes advantage of the illusions Ragle Gumm is experiencing and Dick demonstrates how by using organized narrative structure and strong characterization with the help of third person omniscient point of view to keep the reader in the dark about what is actually real.
There are currently 747,408 registered sex offenders in the United States of America, according to PR Newswire, and the number of registered sex offenders has increased twenty-three percent in the last five years. Most convicted sex offenders have been convicted for crimes of a sexual nature; however, some sex offenders have simply violated a law contained in a sexual category. This is a growing problem in the Unites States that we are having more and more offenders violating sex related crimes. Sex related crimes include sexual assault, statutory rape, bestiality, child sexual abuse, female genital mutilation, incest, rape, and sexual imposition. The two main ones are sexual assault and rape. “Sexual assault and abuse is any type of sexual activity that you do not agree to, including: Inappropriate touching, Vaginal, anal, or oral penetration, Sexual intercourse that you say no to, Rape, Attempted rape, and Child molestation. Sexual assault can be verbal, visual, or anything that forces a person to join in unwanted sexual contact or attention”, (Womenshealh.gov). “Rape is nonconsensual sexual intercourse, often consisting of unwanted intercourse accomplished by means of force or fear. One variation of rape -- called statutory rape -- disregards consent issues and makes it unlawful to have sex with a minor under the age of 18”, (Berman). Sexual crimes like rape for example can have negative effects on the victim.
And in the summer one small man will risk his life to get bird eggs of a cliffside. Then there’s the keeping warm piece, it can be less than 30 degrees below zero! Imagine the things they need to stay warm, like caribou snow gear.
...ots her memory, the blossoms her dreams, and the branches her vision. After each unsuccessful marriage, she waits for the springtime pollen to be sprinkled over her life once again. Even after Tea Cake's death, she has a garden of her own to sit and revel in.
Sandra's tale brought back much nostalgia for my younger days. Those days when everything was much more simple and happiness came with almost no effort. Cisneros reminds the reader of infantile glee by repeating words, just like a kid would do. She writes, "please, please, please," and "and there! And there!, And there!…" making almost an alliteration of words that realistically depicts the speech of a child ...
It was a warm sunny day in the summer of the nineteen nighties nine, at the Jersey Shore. Sally stood outside her grandparents ' house with hesitation. Should Juan and I have come? Sally thinks to herself. Sally then begins to gaze out at the ocean 's shorelines. As if time had stood still and the world faded away. She closed her eyes and took it all in. It made her think of all the wonderful childhood memories that they had achieved there. Sally remembered playing in the sand, swimming in the ocean, the bright sun gazing down upon her and a boy. This place had memories that Sally would never forget and treasure forever, for that kid now a man was always in her heart and her life.
Standing on the balcony, I gazed at the darkened and starry sky above. Silence surrounded me as I took a glimpse at the deserted park before me. Memories bombarded my mind. As a young girl, the park was my favourite place to go. One cold winter’s night just like tonight as I looked upon the dark sky, I had decided to go for a walk. Wrapped up in my elegant scarlet red winter coat with gleaming black buttons descending down the front keeping away the winter chill. Wearing thick leggings as black as coal, leather boots lined with fur which kept my feet cozy.
...is a romantic poem that teaches a lesson about life. Its use of figurative language makes the poem appealing to the readers. It talks about life being fun
There was an hour or so of daylight left before sundown, but Anna still wanted to kill most of it before we hit the road again on our way to wherever the rave—gathering—was happening this time. I was more than content spending that time just talking by the side of Bluegrass Creek with her, but all this reminiscing of what our lives were like before we died had given her a pretty wild idea.
It portrayed the themes of ephemerality, life in the face of death, and the dastardly characteristics of death. Just like his mother, the dandelion was able to accomplish conveying the emotions and thoughts he held. The dandelion has a brief lifespan, and once it has completed its journey it departs for good. Even though the garden it lived in had poisonous soil, the dandelion was still able to stay alive (if only for a little while) in the wasteland. Finally, the brevity of the weed’s life is shadowed by the remaining beauty in the world, and this portrays the author’s feelings of being cheated by his mother’s untimely death. Her life is gone like a breeze, but her beauty will remain an eternal
A red brick house on top of a small hill is where my memories reside. A slightly curved gravel road led to the front of the house. Eight or nine rose brown apple trees randomly covered the plush green lawn. Down the small hill, muddy brown water trickled down a ditch with cattails surrounding it. One enormous willow tree sat in the background, to the right of the house, to complete the picture. It almost seemed like a picture from a postcard. But when you're a kid none of this really matters. All that really matters to you is to have as much fun as possible. My memories don't come just from this beautiful picture but from the little things making it.
I brush my eyes awake, feeling the cold seeping in from my window. It’s 9 AM and it’s winter in Minnesota. Feeling sleepy, I stand up and go outside. I love the winter air. It always refreshes my mind and there’s just a cold bite to it that I enjoy. Coming back inside, I boot up my computer, hoping to enjoy it a little before heading out. The winter days swim together, phasing throughout my mind, and I fall asleep again, or I have woken up.