Ideas

Dear Friend,

Sometimes my mind is teeming with ideas of things to write or talk about.

I don't mind that part of being a writer.

It's the solidification of those thoughts that can be a problem.

A blank page.
A blank mind.
Restless fingers itching to type or pick up a pen.

But then nothing comes. Those ideas suddenly seem far too big or far too small to capture.

It doesn't have to be perfect or even accurate, just contained.

Identified
Recognized.
Cataloged.

I have lists of concepts, of ideas, of fleeting thoughts I hope to someday revive and explore. And yet all too often they remain elusive.

Is it the idea of ideas I find so compelling?

Am I slated to forever collect mental trinkets to sit on the shelf of my mind for exhibition only?

Is a thought real the moment you think it or is it only alive once it makes its way out of your mind?

In the instant between saying the word and before it sailed off into the air he clamped his lips shut - and the "but" was trapped in his mouth, all made but not spoken.
- The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster

Written words are spoken silently, slipping through muscles and movement to etch themselves visibly to a medium - trapped on the page in limbo. Thought but not formed, or formed but not spoken.

Are thoughts real because I write them?

Thoughtfully,
Heather

[Originally written June 10, 2021]