http://slow.writerscafe.org/Otimbeaux The original writings of author Otimbeaux en-us Copyright 2026 WritersCafe.org 1775244172 WritersCafe.org RSS Generator 15 It comes to a close. The end of an achievement, the last paragraph of a pivotal chapter. The only one of its kind, the only one that will ever be.I woke up the day of my 44th birthday with a once in a lifetime motivation. It had never occurred to me that I would still be alive at this point, and I m.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Otimbeaux/2875331/ Part IFrom 12:01AM of the birthday itself, I set out to make this year of my life the one in which I left nothing behind. At 44, a duplicate of my lifelong favorite number (and one considered divine within segments of indigenous communities), I was going to make this a year to define my se.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Otimbeaux/2855429/ I’ve lived within a tower of self-defense.It’s not as if I pledged myself to a dark and sinister path, or expected to end up encaged. I just found something unique, and I wanted to bury it and protect it. And the lengthy progression from seed to structure was so slow - and so s.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Otimbeaux/2855420/ Once upon a time I wrote several manuscripts that were meant to serve as a flagship series. And while the story was decent, the narrative was amateur, and after it was done I filed it away as “maybe some day I’ll fix it”. That day may never come, but the achievement of the m.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Otimbeaux/2855419/ I walk to work. Birds sing for a while and then disappear behind the drone of vehicles and grinding, and when the war begins anew, I duck my head.Dogs bark at me. Vehicles fly through stop signs without looking. There are digging machines and mud mountains and pits. Beggars yell. A siren screams. By.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Otimbeaux/2843994/ Our Great ShepherdOnce upon a time, high on a stunning lush-green hilltop in the county of Seaside Serenity, a flock of sheep grazed. Their safety assured, their world contained, some 40 of them chewed upon perfect grasses, their heads down, their eyes focused, their stubby tails twitching. There wa.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Otimbeaux/2837757/ I worked hard to be here.To be in a place where I could sit up straight and look down. And see the roots. To behold the extent of their depth in a seemingly bottomless toxic miasma. To notice how much poison is buried there. And to not lose posture. To keep my back straight. Knowing I am vaccinated .. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Otimbeaux/2836840/ To the Children of Unloving ParentsIt’s not your fault. There’s nothing wrong with you. There’s something wrong with THEM.There’s also nothing you could have done differently. They are unwell. And just because they were too unwell to know how to love you, it doesn’.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Otimbeaux/2821717/ The sunshine in June. Life-giving, welcoming, capable of indiscriminate wholesale annihilation.On a bright day at the threshold of summer, I pedaled out of town and set up at a sacred, shaded location and pledged to heal the wound. Or at least examine it to see if it might ever be healed. It had bee.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Otimbeaux/2818348/ April 24. Evening. Glancing through the window of my childhood home. Something. Oddly compelled, I wandered outside to experience it. Birds, shadows, peace. A set of throaty, beloved rainclouds teased from the heavens, but so far their only offering to the bright green world was the occasi.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Otimbeaux/2815070/ Eat. Drink.Urinate. Scratch.Chew. More chew. Gnawgnawgnawgnaw.Vomit.Dig.Run.Chase.Sniffsniffsniffsniff.Listen……Runrunrunrunrunrunrunrunrunrunrunrun.Pantpantpantpantpantpantpantpantpant.Listen………FEAR!!RUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNPANTPANTPANTPANTPANTPANTPANTPANTPan.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Otimbeaux/2805524/ “Just coffee, I think,” said I, looking up at her, connecting eyes.“Are you sure?” she replied.An unexpected brightness glimmered behind her smile, just a hint of a sunspark. A small star in this icy void - probably the only one - and magnetic. “Toast? Omelet?”Tra.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Otimbeaux/2805522/ If you have ever experienced compassion or love, even with a plant or an animal, think about it. Breathe it in and make it the focus of your thoughts. Allow love to pour forth from your heart, run like water through your cells, and finally drip out, warmly, through your tingling fingertips.Anger is .. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Otimbeaux/2801522/ There was a massive dam constructed of concrete and boasting giant locking mechanisms. Finely crafted to stand against both time and nature, it shouldered the head of what was once a raging river sustaining a very poor village. The dam had been built to protect the lowland from flooding, and the riv.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Otimbeaux/2795580/ I’ve always liked to consider my mind comfortable in its openness. I like there to be things I don’t know about, phenomena I can’t explain, words I’m not familiar with. If not for these curiosities, the desire for knowledge and hunger for development might be stalle.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Otimbeaux/2795572/ A Steve Gleason story.So to understand the Steve Gleason story you must first, wincingly, call to mind hordes of drunken reprobates who scream mercilessly at large scale sporting events - you know the ones. Now, imagine that such a phenomenon of fury and excitement is not quar.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Otimbeaux/2792898/ BackgroundIn 2010, UCLA film student Taylor Underwood raised $44,000 to direct, produce, and star in a film for which he wrote a script titled Momentum: Down (sometimes called Momentum: Elevator Down). It is a science-fiction / found-footage zombie apocalypse movie filmed entirely on .. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Otimbeaux/2781121/ PRIEST: In the name of a single, restricted component of sacred masculine, and of one biased translation of it.ALL: Amen.PRIEST: Our ownership of your imagination and imposed limits of your potential be upon you.ALL: And also with you.PRIEST: Small Human-crafted God-Idol, my mortal authority blesses.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Otimbeaux/2780230/ Dear XXXXXX:I have a story. I came to a bright, bold realization the other day, and I'd like to share it with you.For most of my life I have felt as though I suffer from an affliction that causes me to be perpetually incompatible with your human representation. With every announcem.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Otimbeaux/2780229/ "Once you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." -Sherlock HolmesLet's say you build a house. From the earliest years you manufactured an idea for a dream home, and as you grew up you searched and saved, explored and eliminated. When you were old en.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Otimbeaux/2777843/ After a thorn-riddled, impossible trail in which I found myself all but buried in a murky swampland and suffocated by impenetrable mangroves, I finally shoved my way violently through a thicket wall, breaking open into a grove that was home to several ancient structures. At immediate glance it appea.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Otimbeaux/2777842/ There comes a point when you're walking that you're afraid to look head-on at reality, because you know something is wrong. And by reality I'm talking about the flesh around your ankles and toes. The intense burning, the soreness, each stabbing pain in my feet told me that it was going to be best no.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Otimbeaux/2777841/ I've never experienced a trauma this deep. It is as if, after so many years of satisfaction and structure and competence of intelligent individuals, a great omnipotent hand has swept in and brought a mocking ruin to everything. Like part of a big joke, a prank, a deity with no remorse or compassion .. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Otimbeaux/2777840/ I awoke to crunching and shuffling and whispers.Apparently I had indeed slept, at least momentarily, and now there was an invading force of mysterious shadowy figures descending on me. I could hear their speech and it was foreign, an alien tongue. Spirits of the dead.I grabbed the radio out of fear .. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Otimbeaux/2777839/ As I sprinted through the jungle, I mused terribly on things. Painful things. Horrible things. I failed. I failed, I told myself, spiking the statement with a fiercely self-accusatory tone. Memories of our base burning to the ground floated like particles in my mind, unable to be flushed away, too f.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Otimbeaux/2777811/ Sure. I wouldn't have the slightest idea what it is like to actually experience a war. And for me to assume anything of such situations would probably be a direct insult to those who have. Thus, for all the assumptions I make regarding war, I apologize in advance to anyone who knows more about the s.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Otimbeaux/2777810/ The more we grow, the more we begin to see our individual place within a greater reality, like lifting off in a plane and suddenly noticing how widespread the orchard really is. Depression and confusion can occur when we begin to outgrow the structured, ritualistic mould of our upbringing, so we can.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Otimbeaux/2776838/ Restored from Writers Café, 2006 http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Otimbeaux/2776819/ Restored from Writers Café, 2006. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Otimbeaux/2776818/ Dear XXXXX:Often have I stopped to consider whether or not I am special for believing in a “true” sort of love, a selfless love notable for great depth, infused with pure spirit, more powerful than anything else and discoverable by only a select privileged few �" a small grou.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Otimbeaux/2776817/ Dear XXXX:Is faith in your mystery sufficient to sustain my strength in the world? Hallucinations of you have appeared all over, one flower after another, some bright and beautiful, some diseased and corrupt, and while none have revealed themselves in reality by choosing my garden in which to appear.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Otimbeaux/2776815/ Part 3 (of 3): Accepting IsolationSo you're okay with the idea of being a seasoned, wiser person, but you're worried you'll be alone because everything familiar is tied to the old way of thinking. There was security in it, and slipping out from under that blanket is scary. Even the people who inspir.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Otimbeaux/2461980/ Part 2 (of 3): Confronting HopelessnessSo you accepted that you are guilty of a mistake. But you think it's hopeless to make up for it. Look at the damage you've done. Look at it. It may be truly, truly terrible.But no one is immortal, and the results of your actions will not endure forever; nor wil.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Otimbeaux/2461979/ Part 1 (of 3): Self-ForgivenessSo you did something you shouldn't have. Somewhere in your heart there was a tiny voice telling you it was wrong. But you didn't take the voice seriously, and you didn't think it was wrong. In reality, you thought it was the right thing to do. No one can blame you for .. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Otimbeaux/2461978/ Graduation Night“Nobody doesn’t like Sara Lee!” chimed Mrs. Smith cheerfully asshe washed the dishes. It was almost time. She giggled.“That’s GARBAGE!” screamed Heather Smith, manifesting suddenlybehind, putting the last pin in her hair. &ldq.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Otimbeaux/2176398/ We built it together, she and I. She needed help, and I traveled up and settled in with her and devoted my self to the care of her and her children. There we made a home, and it was wondrous. It's a cozy little place, comfortably hidden deep within the aching pines and stoic oaks of a sacr.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Otimbeaux/2175607/ I knew it was going to happen. I knew it.As soon as I turn off the lights and try to sleep - that's when scary things always show up.Like a locomotive that comes barreling along the tracks from the unknown, mass and momentum roaring  f.They say a tornado sounds like a train, and until.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Otimbeaux/2172228/ Once upon a time, there lived a slug named Olpt. Olpt enjoyed a quiet life in a field at the back of a human parking lot. For many moons everything proceeded with serene solitude and calm complacency, with not a sliver of disturbance to interrupt our friend's satisfying existence. He knew of little .. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Otimbeaux/2172052/ A 15-word story. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Otimbeaux/2171861/ (Based on a true story) http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Otimbeaux/2171860/ When you’re born you’recovered with a blanket.Thenyou’re covered with clothingThenmath, science, and religionTheninsuranceThensocial securityThendirtAndin between….HeatlampRoofsLoveHairLawCrownsCloudsClimatecrises.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Otimbeaux/2170306/ Day1I’venever seen such mindless starvation. What do they think this behavioris going to satisfy them with? What’s the reward?Ohright. There is no thinking. It’s just an endless drive to goforward and consume.Iguess I’m lucky they’re .. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Otimbeaux/2170305/ In the spring of all sadnessI amthe wheel of life.Wherethere is silence, I sing.Wherethere is death, I dance.Inthe chaos of cowardice, I blossom.Inthe emptiness of embarrassment, I laugh.Againstisolation,Againstdistance,Division-Sorrow-Abandonment-.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Otimbeaux/2170303/ The water.Heartbeats in waves.Washesspace Sterilizestime Tellsmemories Manufactureslife LeaveschangeIsits courseUnchangeable?Spillsover Openspaths Providesnourishment Nurtureshealing HelpsmoveMeanttoward solaceInside?Embra.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Otimbeaux/2170302/ Once upon a time, there lived abeautiful healthy young deer named Ginger. Ginger lived a quiet lifein the forest, picking expertly through the farthest underbrush forthe perfect berries to supplement the bland greens she could obtaineverywhere else. Ginger was unique among her herd becaus.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/Otimbeaux/2170301/