August Photo Challenge: The Written Word

All sorts of things came to mind with PJ’s prompt this month: Written Word. So, this post is an eclectic combination of ideas.

The written word holds special meaning for me. I guess it would for anyone who writes or blogs. Plus, I love all things books so it stands to reason I adore the written word.

From books to social media, the written word is a powerful tool that has the ability to change attitudes and enrich lives. Likewise, it can be wielded as a destructive weapon used to tear down and destroy. It is the manner in which humans connect the past to the present and on to the future. Whether it’s actually handwritten or typed, the written word transcends time, and connect us with the author allowing us a glimpse into their mind.

Words—so innocent and powerless as they are, as standing in a dictionary, how potent for good and evil they become in the hands of one who knows how to combine them. ~Nathaniel Hawthorne

Written Word 1
Peanut is soon to be turning 11 years old. She’s getting to be all legs and it shows in this shot of her and Cabo relaxing with the some light chapter-book reading. Last year in 4th grade she was assessed at a reading level/competency of a 7th grader. 🙂 She luuuvs the written word.

Written Word 2
I will return in stone.
This is attributed to the Native American warrior, Crazy Horse, and was recorded by his friend, Black Elk, as a prediction by the Oglala Lakota leader before his death in 1877. We took the grand girls to see the Crazy Horse monument in South Dakota’s Black Hills earlier this month. Construction began 1948 and continues to this day. Not only are many of Crazy Horse’s words written down for posterity, his face will now stand the test of time carved into the side of a mountain.

Written Word 3
Twix is learning to write words and we have no shortage of hand-written love notes around our home. Evidently, this one also served as a checklist.

Written Word 4
Speaking of love notes, some people in the community around Peanut and Twix’s school took time to write out encouraging words on signs that were placed en route to the school. These are only two examples of the many signs and sidewalk chalk messages seen by students on their first day back.

Written Word 5
Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day. The good writers are the ones who see five or six of them. Most people don’t see any. ~Orson Scott

To most, this is a photo of a flower growing in rocky terrain. It’s actually a sunflower growing, despite the odds, in the sandy floor of the Badlands National Park in South Dakota. My plan is for this photo to someday grow up and become a blog post. I love looking for the unusual that will inspire me to use the written word to record my thoughts about life. And, if you’ve spent more than 30 seconds reading my blog, you know how much I love to do just that.

Playing along with PJ’s monthly photo challenge. Check out more written word inspiration over at a ‘lil hoo haa.