Offing (n): the more distant part of the sea seen from the shore.
Well, that's lovely. So lovely that I gave the definition away immediately. Everyone can close their eyes and see the word offing. It's one of those words that you discover accidentally, that you stumble on one day while browsing through a dictionary or on the Internet. You feel a little dollop of satisfaction spread through you: there's a word for this after all.
Offing is used in an equally satisfactory idiom:
in the offing,
(a) at a distance but within sight.
(b) in the projected future; likely to happen:
A wedding is in the offing.
in the offing,
(a) at a distance but within sight.
(b) in the projected future; likely to happen:
A wedding is in the offing.
The Prompt
Here's the thing about an offing: you will never reach it, even if you row, row, row your boat all the way to the horizon. It's something only seen. In a way, you need to have faith it exists when you're not looking directly at it.
What spaces in your life exist only when you look at them? Better still: what spaces exist only when you name them?
So, you're standing on the beach with all these deep thoughts winding their way through your head. Carving thought canyons and trickling down into your fingertips. There's sand between your toes. (Let's be honest, there's sand everywhere.) The sun is rising. The sea stretches at your feet, reaching a little farther each time. You look from the minutia of sand and stone and silt, sporadic sea shells and rhythmic ripples, outward to the horizon. You gaze into the offing.
Write about what happens next.
Do you dive in, trying to get a closer look? Do you suddenly remember all the unnamed spaces in your everyday life? Do you think of a person? And so on, and so forth.
 |
| Read more posts by Alexandria. |
No comments:
Post a Comment