Welcome to February 18, 2021 and to Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (aka, FOWC). It’s designed to fill the void after WordPress bailed on its daily one-word prompt.
I will be posting each day’s word just after midnight Pacific Time (US).
Today’s word is “invigorate.”
Write a post using that word. It can be prose, poetry, fiction, non-fiction. It can be any length. It can be just a picture or a drawing if you want. No holds barred, so to speak.
Once you are done, tag your post with #FOWC and create a pingback to this post if you are on WordPress. Please check to confirm that your pingback is there. If not, please manually add your link in the comments.
____________________________________
My interest in photography, having been reinvigorated by a new camera, kept me looking through the bathroom window. That spot offered, after all, the best angle on our birdfeeder. It surely ‘paid off ‘ with many gorgeous captures of a large variety of backyard birds.
Bird watching from the bathroom became such an obsession that our home echoed with banging and shouts for me to “get out or you’ll be cleaning it up!” on a regular basis. The ultimate photo seemed a moment away every time I peeked out.
Drugs couldn’t possibly hold a candle to that kind of anticipation. I’d become a ‘shutter junkie’!
After awhile, though, the everyday avian spectacle became mundane. A new ‘fix’ would be needed or that invigorating spark might cool off. A new snowfall, ramped up my vigil, and the wintery winds made for ‘fluffier’ subjects…Then it happened!
A flash of feathers… a brief struggle… and the BIG trophy came into view.
I left my perch on the toilet lid and ran to the back door. My hands shook as I cracked open the door and “zoomed in” on a sharp-shinned hawk. He was eating his kill greedily beneath the birdfeeder and I feared I’d miss my chance. I inched closer and closer, snapping shoddy shots as I positioned for the winner.
At one point, a wave of caution in the presence of a bird of prey with talons as sharp as razors, asked me to pause. But, my heightened adrenaline level told me to ignore it.
The winter had been a brutal one. The hawk just kept eating. I now stood 2 feet away and crouched to capture my prize. He circled the kill a bit but that wild predator did not protest…did not show fear… did not even flinch.
I left him then. Our encounter had imprinted something even more valuable than a captured photo.
His will to survive and his desperate hunger had been more powerful than his instinct to flee. My will to capture his image had been more powerful than my instinct to pause.
And so it goes with Nature… experiencing it is the only way you’ll ever really “see” it.
This is a true story. The fact that I cannot find my actual photos but still have the story, proves my point.
FOWC with Fandango — Invigorate – This, That, and The Other (fivedotoh.com)
Sillyfrog's Blog 
It’s too bad you can’t find the photos you took. They would be something to behold.
I didn’t search very hard. Perhaps I’ll find them and use them for another post. 😉 Thanks.