Random Thoughts about Thoughts

Fragments of thoughts flutter about my head, too restless to settle and form solid ideas. A thought needs peace and quiet to put down roots and grow into something substantial. Pollen, pollution, idea dust – clogging up neuro-passages, jamming brain cavities so thoughts get stuck and go nowhere. Brain muscles not exercised atrophy and shrivel up into thin, weak tissue unable to accomplish much. Healthy body, healthy mind – both need feeding of nutritious, substantial fare, and plenty of exercise to thrive, grow and function well.

Inactivity leads to disease – inactivity of the mind leads to disease of the mind. Poor circulation leads to a host of ailments. The mind must be exercised, fed the right things, and be given plenty of rest in order to stay strong and healthy.

Look! Puppy! Aww, puppies are cute. Wait, what was I thinking about? Oh, well. I’ve been suffering from a fractured attention span for some time now. It’s like fragments of thoughts flutter about my head, too restless to settle and form solid ideas. Wait, that sounds familiar. Did that thought already fly by before? I should write a grocery list. Oh, there’s that alarm; let me go finish the laundry while the thought occurs to me.

Silence Is Of The Essence

silence your mind
filter out the noise
pare down to the bare
essentials

Happy Hunting

I’ve been out hunting today. First, I tried the coffee shop, but that yielded nothing. I was trying to wrangle me some words, but they kept escaping.

I was getting distracted by the vastness of internetland. New acquaintances to connect with, old ones to catch up with, plans to be made with others, photos to be distributed to their rightful owners, times and places to be firmed up and secured to calendars. Lovely distractions all, but nevertheless, distractions. All the while, the words were lurking in the corners of my mind, but every time I tried to catch some, they scattered. A new distraction had popped up.



So I went to the woods as I often do on such occasions. There, words tend to be more readily rounded up and roped. But even along the trail that yields at times such abundant bounty, pickings were slim today. There have been cases when I enter the woods and step right into whole flocks of words, and they’ll remain calm, cautiously keeping an eye on me as I walk in amongst them, even allowing me to reach out and touch them. At such times, I’m able to feel the shape of each word, carefully selecting for form, function, and beauty, then simply pick up the ones I want, as long as I make sure not to make any sudden moves that would scare them off.



But not today. The words have been so skittish lately, it’s as if they suspect I’m out to harm them, or worse, kill them off with some awful piece of prose. I would never do such a thing on purpose of course, but they may be sensing that I’m not completely on top of my mind’s game lately. My attention span remains fractured, and I can’t seem to regain the stillness of more serene days of my past. Distractions are many and diverse, quite intriguing at times, yet as I continue to blaze my trail of new experiences, the pile of unpleasant things undone, issues not dealt with, cobwebs not swept out, continues to grow in my wake.

In the woods today, I could sometimes glimpse a gang of words just beyond the horizon, but they were too far away to take good aim at. So I tried using my tracking skills, I’d lie in wait and stalk my prey as words would come into view, but for the most part, they kept eluding me. I could sense their shadows around me – it was as if they were the ones stalking me and not the other way around. I could almost hear the sounds of them, but it was always just outside earshot. I felt watched from the shallows of the winter woods – as if thousands of words were observing me, whispering amongst themselves, snickering at my vain attempts at finding them.

One time I came upon a few of them unawares, and I snuck up behind them and got pretty close, but then my phone pinged loudly – an incoming text message – and they ran for the hills.

So after nearly a full day of hunting, this is all I caught. Pretty meager by any standard. Better luck the next time. Meanwhile, I’ll hunker down and wait for spring to return to the fields of my soul.

Decade Resolutions

Things To Do This Decade:
• Dance more dances
• Do good deeds
• Climb towards the stars
• Tango in Buenos Aires
• Settle in Seattle
• Skydive
• Walk the Chinese Wall
• Learn Arabic
• Get a job in Jordan
• Own a horse
• Write a book
• Write more books
• Make a living writing
• Make my life matter
• Make you matter more