the annealing year.
I'm participating in a 31-day blogging challenge called reverb10, responding to writing prompts that are designed to elicit reflections on 2010, and hopes for 2011. You can find out more about it here. I am challenging myself to respond to each prompt in 15 minutes or less.
Today's challenge: Healing – What healed you this year? Was it sudden, or a drip-by-drip evolution? How would you like to be healed in 2011?
the annealing year.
Annealing, in metallurgy and materials science, is a heat treatment wherein a material is altered, causing changes in its properties such as strength and hardness. It is a process that produces conditions by heating to above the recrystallization temperature and maintaining a suitable temperature, and then cooling. Annealing is used to induce ductility, soften material, relieve internal stresses, refine the structure by making it homogeneous, and improve cold working properties. -Wikipedia
Metal in hot flame, then cooled.
Reshaped. Expanded. Contracted.
Repeat.
Ovarian cancer scare.
Fearsome fire.
Endometrial cancer scare.
Hotter.
Waiting. Waiting.
Cooling.
Travel travel travel travel travel.
Hot exhaustion.
A friend's death.
A cat's death.
War.
Children starving.
Hate crimes.
Another friend's illness.
Her death.
Heat. Fire. Hot.
Hotter:
Ovarian cancer scare.
Endometrial cancer scare.
Heart scare.
Blood pressure scare.
Respite.
Travel travel travel travel travel.
Cool down.
Reshape.
Daughter to college.
Flames changing.
A friend's goodbye: Thank you. Care deeply.
Travel travel travel travel travel.
A small child's crayon apron enlarging my heart.
Cool down.
Reshape.
Hot.
The annealing year.
Healed?
I hope not. May the annealing continue. Stepping into the fire means I am alive.
[Torso IV by Latchezar Boyadjiev. Image from here.]
