As a child I lived in a magical place near Livingston in Scotland. Not for a great deal of time but enough to inspire and set me off on my journey to success. Below is a look at how it happened:
Deep in the forest is a girl from nowhere sat chewing her hair. She’s hidden behind a pine tree with a content chicken on her knee. She’s in quiet thought as she gazed into the flooded ditch. Her reflection rippled like her hen friends’ wattles in the breeze. The sky was borderline aggressive but the girl didn’t notice, didn’t care. She was happily unaware.
Spent shotgun cartridges littered the ground and up on tree branches were… Best leave that part out, as influential as it was.
The girl tugged the rabbits down from the trees which were displayed like trophies on the highest shelf. With her face crinkled up holding one of Bambi’s friends, she eased her hen into her coat. The chicken peeped out as the girl headed along the winding path. Gently jumping over ferns not realising there was rabbit gore splattering her previously stained jeans.
Empty shotgun cartridges… They’d come in handy, she thought, and stuffed a few into her ripped pockets. The result of over-stuffing with her kooky treasures. The girl reached her special place. Constructed from ferns and branches of all sizes, a den to protect her from her wild imagination. She hid her over-enthusiasm for remnants of life collected on many adventures in the forest. Concealed her from the hunters and her parents. Dad didn’t mind but mum thought it “dirty”. Why no, the stash of porn under the bushes was dirty.
Cue her delightfully mad uncle. A man who loudly exclaimed “Hello my friend!” before you could see him. Whether you knew him or not, he called you a friend. Addicted to car boot sales, he took the excited girl to one where she was bought a taxidermy duckling, weasel, microscope and dissection kit.
Armed with her anatomy book and new instruments, the girl collected an assortment of natures sadness and pinned them turn by turn to the cork board to explore the amazing world beneath their fur. The subject of biology blossomed into full bloom in her ever-curious mind and so, her journey began.
Met with ridicule and misunderstanding, her adult journey progressed with resilience and passion. The girl now a woman finally cared and was aware as she witnessed the world beneath the skin of the recently deceased.
Unfortunately I was prematurely medically retired due to rising chronic health problems. Forever grateful to all the staff at the Royal Brompton & Harefield NHS Trust for their patience and training. For their compassion and understanding.
© Copyright: Sharon Lawson™
Sharon Unfiltered 
Taxidermy has always seemed rather creepy to me. Dissecting I can understand. It’s the stuffing and keeping it around afterwards that gives me the heebie-jeebies.
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Taxidermy is questionable but I was a very unusual child 😂 I suppose it’s cool how each thing triggered my mind into the path I took throughout school and subsequent jobs as dental nurse and mortician. I was almost qualified at the dentists but it wasn’t what I wanted to do. It was good fun and I had a huge crush on the Maltese oral surgeon 😍
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Lol
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