At any given time, if someone were able to see my thoughts in my head, they would see a lot of jumbled up, interconnected, falling over each other thoughts. I feel like I have a lot in my head and that’s why it is so joyful when I can siphon it off onto paper.
I suspect we are all like this to one degree or another, and could all do with a mental mute button every so often.
As a writer, I like to record some of these ad hoc rambling thoughts: not only because they might spark an idea in the future but because they link seemingly arbitrary concepts in a way that only happens subconsciously.
It is funny how our neurons fire up; sometimes I almost think I can feel it, like a million tiny sparks of light linking one moment to another.
I have talked before about the value of the notebook in these times and it’s definitely a useful writing tool.
Of course, some thoughts bubble up that are much more challenging for one reason or another. These situations feed my poetry but it takes a while sometimes to look back at it, and it generally produces work that I feel unwilling to share in open mike events or at readings.
For me, the most difficult to share are about loss. But even with these thoughts my neurons can prod me into an unexpected direction; I guess because the sadness is a direct result of happier times before.
The point really is to say that thoughts can get in the way of what we think we need to do. But perhaps, if we can treat them differently, they can be a conduit to getting to an altogether unexpected destination.
And maybe that’s where our brains wanted us to go in the first place!
Happy Writing,
EJ
🙂
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