Human Diaries is a website for people to write about their thoughts and experiences. We mention that we are looking for inspirational stories, which is true. Positivity is very helpful to so many people. But don’t think your story isn’t ‘good’ enough just because it’s not about overcoming adversity, helping someone, or conquering a challenge. We also enjoy stories about interesting or exciting experiences – or even ‘everyday’ occurrences that you have. One contributor told the story about how helping out with his uncle in the carpentry shop as a child influenced him to build a side business making furniture. Some have written about how they made changes in their or others’ lives. Some of our stories are just interesting, funny, or informative – many about vacations, day trips, or other outings. We also have the overcoming hardship type of stories. If you browse through our website, you’ll get the best idea of what type of things we like to publish. We even have child contributions! Fiction is also welcome, as long as it’s labeled as such.
So many things can become interesting stories if you describe the sights, sounds, and feelings involved. For example, I decided this morning to run a few errands. First, I went to Whole Foods to get some shirataki noodles. I decided to wander around to see what they had instead of just running in, grabbing the noodles, and heading to check out. Before I even got into the store, I saw some things I wanted to photograph. They have quite a variety of pumpkins and gourds on the sidewalk near the entrance. So many shapes and sizes! It’s a little too early in the year for me to buy them, but I did get several pictures. The clouds in the sky were intriguing, and the sun was shining through nicely. Right next to the entrance was a table of honey crisp apples. I could actually smell them as I walked past. They smelled amazing. At that moment, I wished I hadn’t just filled our fruit drawer with several pounds of apples recently!
Once I got inside, I looked around at all of the flowers, fruits, and vegetables right inside the door. They were all arranged so beautifully that I couldn’t help slowing down a bit to take in all of the sights. I saw heirloom tomatoes in all sizes and colors. Next was the cheese display. They always seem to have at least a few free samples peppered throughout the store. They had some sort of pumpkin flavored cheese on oat crackers in one of the bins, for example. I wandered down the aisles to see what sort of items they had for sale. I love the aisle with the bulk dried goods. It’s amazing how many different and unusual things can be purchased there. I saw goat’s milk, which I don’t see in other stores. They also have quite a variety of non-meat products such as ‘bacon’ or ‘lunchmeat’ made out of tofu. They have things like tempeh, or boxed quinoa falafel. They have extra large free range eggs at the reasonable price of $2.99 per dozen. I found vegan ‘jello’ in four different flavors.
One adorable thing I noticed was the tiny, child sized shopping carts. They literally only go up to about my knee. Today, there was a little boy shopping with his dad, and he was pushing one of those little carts around.
After I finished walking through the store, it was time to check out. The cashier asked me about the shirataki noodles, and we had a conversation about them before I left. When I went back out to the parking lot, I saw some beautiful succulent plants in decorative pots right outside the exit. I took a few more pictures of them, and of the sky.
I stopped off at home to drop off my purchases, and then headed out to Gentile’s for some produce. On the way there, I was slowing down for a red light, and saw a groundhog running across the road. He just made it. While I waited for the light to turn green, I took a few pictures of him sitting there at the side of the road, looking like he was catching his breath!
At Gentile’s, I looked for fun or unusual things to buy as I always do. I was sad they didn’t have any cactus pears, but I was happy they did have fresh figs, and unprocessed olives! I had to get some of each of those, as well as many other fruits and vegetables. No apples, though.
It was a low key, but nice morning.
So there you have it – an example of what we’re looking for at Human Diaries – stories of life, both extraordinary and everyday!
