Congratulations to Grace Ryan, first-place winner in the Inspirational/Spiritual Essay category of the 93rd Annual Writer’s Digest Writing Competition. Here’s her winning essay, “Mystical Messages.” Mystical Messages by Grace Ryan The comforting serene feeling Hayley got from inhaling the scent of freshly washed bedlinen, created a much-needed balance to the feeling of isolation and sadness that had been dominating her thoughts that Saturday. The warm humid weather had lent itself well to drying her bedlinen outdoors. There was something about sheets dried in that fashion that just gave them an extra softness. She inhaled deeply and felt the scent of sensitive skin washing detergent calm her mind. Every object in her room seemed to come alive. The Buddha statue smiled peacefully towards the air. The rose gold heart ornament, seemed like it was emitting a real throbbing rhythm. The painting of the female tribe members, swimming in a natural forest pond, felt as if the water ripples were moving. The bubbles rising in her glass of water had a sporadic rhythm that caught her attention. The rosemary incense had burned out, maybe it had succeeded in taking away the negative energy of the room in which she found herself absorbed that day. She tried to remember how and when the bad feelings had started. There was a moment during her online study class when she noticed that the teacher was not being authentic or sincere when he spoke to a student. She felt the teacher’s feeling, as if it were, her own. It felt heavy. There was a loss of connection between everyone in the class in that moment as others pretended that they did not notice, in that pretence, they also became inauthentic and disconnected. She had gone to the gym after that thinking that it would make her feel better if she exercised but unfortunately while in the gym, she had tapped into an emotion that was very bleak and even overpowering as it was a mass effect of people who became obsessed with a misaligned value driven addiction. The endless mirror taking selfies, posting to social […]
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