#storyseeds Friday: The dark wood

If you follow me on Twitter or on Facebook, you know that I'm posting daily #storyseeds, a short prompt for creativity and imagination. I started doing them as much for myself as for anyone else. They make me stretch my mind a little bit each morning and they help me remember that I am a creative being. It's fun, a little therapeutic, and a little useful for others. I'm posting expanded #storyseeds here on Fridays, both as a chance for me to experiment with more complex prompts and as a way for you to have a playful start for the weekend. Let me know what you think, which worked for you and which didn't, and send me any prompts you'd like to see posted! I can't promise I'll use them, but I may very well.

“In the middle of the journey of our life I found myself within a dark woods where the straight way was lost.” 

― Dante Alighieri, Inferno

The dark wood is rich with story. It is the warning heart of so many fairy tales (those stories that offer guideposts to living), the place where old lives can be released and new beginnings may be found, rich with promise and peril, and the metaphor for some of the most catalyzing times in our lives. 

Let's spend a little time there, planting seeds for stories.

1. Embodied
   How does your body feel when you are in wild places? Do you breath more deeply? Is there a kernel of caution? Do you feel it in your gut, your heart, your eyes?
   Equally, what do you feel when you venture into the unknown, whether it's a new place, a new way of thinking, a new activity?
   What does fear feel like? Or excitement? How do they differ? How are they the same?
2. Described
   Imagine a wood, a place of mystery, beginnings, and endings.
   What do you see? What kinds of trees? Is there a path? Is it dirt or pine needles or something else?
   What do you smell? What are the sounds when you are moving through the woods or those when you are still?
   How did you get there? Does anyone live there, human or otherwise? Is the wood named or nameless? How big is it? Are you lost or do you have an origin and destination? Is it an urban wood or a remote place? 
3. A seed
   While wandering in the wood for a pleasant afternoon walk, you glance down and see a white pebble. You pick it up, surprised the see such a bright stone here. A dozen feet down the path you find another. Then another.
   OR
   The trees are whispering.
4. Story-story-go!
   Imagine you set out into the dark wood to find a solution or salvation. Who or what did you find? How did they help or hurt? How did you help or hurt those you encountered? Remember, this story takes place in the woods. How do you find your way out again?

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