10 Year Challenge

Thanks to the 10 year challenge, I cast a backward glance at my significant moments in 2009, and I thought of the two elfin dolls I bought at a second hand shop as lucky charms in a year that was tough personally and professionally.

Since taking them home, the elfin dolls have been perched on my bookshelves, watching my every move across the emotional spectrum. They too have survived the challenge, besides losing some sheen to a decade of sunbathing. Or depending on how you look at this, they have acquired that rustic look that says time well spent.

They do as they please, like the dresses they wear which look like erupted volcanoes gushing lava. Their wings are outstretched like the palms of my hands, my lifelines waiting to bear fruits and flowers. I never ask what fruits and flowers they want me to bear, and they never tell because they are elves.

If I decide to be a dandelion and a durian, or a lady slipper and a lychee, they would flutter their wings as a yes because there are so many ways to fly.

Even falling is a kind of flying. Like gushing lava.