Sometimes prompts have led my friend and I out of fiction and into memoir. That happened this past week; the prompt had mirrors in it. I’m not going to share but I reflected that “mirrors are a tricky thing in our lives. No wonder the word is found in poems and becomes a magic portal in some stories, such as, “Through the Looking Glass.” A type of double edged sword at times, mirrors can show us what we want to see, or something else.
During one of the toughest times of my life, I couldn’t meet my eyes in the mirror. I didn’t want to get up in the morning and I didn’t want to face my reflection. I’m not sure if I blamed myself for the pain I was going through or was disappointed that I couldn’t perform better, but my gaze seemed to ask too much of me.
Now, just as my journal is my friend, so is my reflection. I don’t spend inordinate amounts of time staring at myself, but when I face the glass, I’m fine with who’s in there.
Certainly mirrors can invite fiction as well. I have one scene in my Braided Dimensions series when Kay peers into the mirror in her home and sees a medieval scene behind her. She also has a dramatic moment when she’s in the spirit of another woman in medieval time, Meeting that other person’s eyes while in her spirit is intense, even challenging. Maybe I was working through my own memory of a difficult time with my own spirit.
If you have mirror thoughts you’d like to share, please do!
Instagram pics:
Marie Judson 