Shoppers swirled through the market, ebbing and flowing and streaming and trickling and never stopping. Never silent. Not a pause.
Jiao wanted to crawl out of her skin.
Jiang’s head remained peacefully bowed over his scroll.
“Delicate like your name,” Grandmother would say, more reprimand than compliment.
For Jiao, the viscous Chi of others had always been an unwanted second skin. It weighed her down.
“Let it flow around and past you,” Jiang’s paintbrush danced undisturbed.
Easy, Jiao sighed, when you are the flow.
She tried to focus on the paints. The flowers. A quiet wall on which to hang.
Jiang – (male’s name) “river”
Jiao – (female’s name) “delicate, beautiful, charming”
For Rochelle’s Friday Fictioneers
Photo prompt © Brenda Cox
I like the underlying philosophy in this one, Na’ama.
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Thank you! 🙂 And … different people do have different ways of managing energies around them …
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You’re welcome 🙂
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🙂
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Your story has a very authentic feel to it.
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Thank you, Sadje! 🙂
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I like “when you are the flow”. Some people have this calm about them no matter what’s happening.
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Indeed so! And it seems his name reflects that well, as does, perhaps, hers … Sometimes parents have an uncanny ability to name a newborn’s temperament, and sometimes I think the name also affects the baby/child’s perception of themselves and how the environment shapes them. We’re complicated beings, we humans are. 🙂
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The perfect message in this story, Na’ama…
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Thank you! 🙂
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Reblogged this on anitadawesauthor.com.
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It’s daunting if you try to compete rather than just doing your own thing. Hopefully she learns her own efforts are enough.
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Yes, and … I’m not sure she is competing as much as trying to survive her reality. And yet, perhaps you’d tapped into something I was not aware I put into the words – and maybe she had been, indeed, constantly compared (temperamentally, at least) to her brother, and his calmer way of managing. Indeed, our efforts, if sincere and sustained, need be enough.
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I loved the contrast between the two characters. Hard to achieve in 100 words!
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Thank you, Neil! 🙂 I’m glad if I managed to do so! 🙂
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I hope Jiao finds peace with who she is, despite her grandmother’s jabs, and what she enjoys doing. Well written, Na’ama!
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I hope so, too! I don’t know if she has much choice in what she does, given how many are stuck in the roles they were given or are open to them in their circumstance. But, yes, I hope she can find peace, and that her brother’s calm can soothe her, rather than hold a candle to her sensitivities.
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Very true, sadly so!
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I agree with Iain. This is beautifully done and we have such a good idea on each of these people’s personalities. Hard to “be the flow”…when you feel everyone else.
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Yep. I understand, especially as someone who tends to be rather sensitive to everything around, too (for good or bad – for I would not want to be less perceptive, AND I realize that noting the fun and funny and pretty and loving and complex, comes with the possibility of being a bit over-flooded sometimes, as I am also aware of the need for self-care, which I don’t mind doing, either …). At the same time, I can also be quite peaceful, and I can be quite good at focusing inward, and not being constantly bombarded … SO … someplace it is a balance, and maybe part of it can be learned. So, I wish her some balance. I know you understand … 😉
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Beautifully written.
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Thank you, Sandra! 🙂
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Love your first sentence. It sets the tone. If you have time, try mine https://onetahayes.com/2022/01/08/math-or-doodles/
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Thank you for reading and commenting! Glad you liked it! 🙂
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Oh, I can so feel her pain. She would do and feel much better if she could paint alone in a room. Great job on the names, too.
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Yes … I agree … Some need their space, literally. Thanks!
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N’ama Y’karah,
Jiao definitely needs to take a page from Jiang’s playbook. His name does flow, doesn’t it? Love the style and message in this one. Well done.
Shalom,
Rochelle
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Thank you, Rochelle! If she can, she ought to. Or, she will need to find another way to endure, for it seems perhaps she does not have the liberty to change the current outward realities of her life. Glad you liked! xx Na’ama
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A beautiful story,and yes, those who are highly tuned to energies find people challenging!
Ronda
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Especially when they may feel there’s no place for respite, day in and day out …
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i love the way you wrote this story. well done.
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Thank you! I’m glad you enjoyed!
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I really enjoyed your story. It made me think myself into the unfamiliar cultural background, which deepened my experience of Jiao’s suffering. The idea that Chi can be viscous and that this can make life difficult is a very expressive way of describing Jiao’s predicament.
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Thanks, Penny. I’m glad it was a bit transportive … I remember seeing street artists plying their trade in the markets of Chiang Mai, and wondering about their experience. What is it like to have your livelihood and art intertwined with the unrelenting presence of crowds? There were those who had an almost palpable ‘energetic shield’ around them, as they attended to their craft. Others seemed resigned. Others still, unperturbed, or uninterested, or genuinely absorbed in their painting. It had a different ‘feel’ than that of street artists in Times Square or other touristy spaces I’ve seen in the US. And this photo elicited that memory, and its wonderings …
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Thank you for the fuller explanation of how the story came into being. It makes it even more fascinating.
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