Musings on Belonging, Noise, and Creativity
A letter for you and me
Reading time is about 2 minutes
Dear reader,
Do you ever realize that you are suddenly removed from the people or ideologies you thought you were a part of?
In fact, it is not a sudden thing at all. You have been walking along a path in the woods one step, step, step at a time. They gave you a map in the parking lot and said, “find yourself through these steps.” You did used to be lost but it turns out you didn’t need to find yourself, but God.
When you looked back time and time again, you saw them and kept walking.
They may have said, “but don’t do it that way” or “she must be on her way to being lost since she left us behind.” But you kept walking in a slow, peaceful movement, despite their echoes. You feel safe in this.
There is less noise here.
Dear mom,
Do you ever find yourself so sick of the noise that you’ve become attached to?
My toddler gets more anxious when the tv is turned off than when her turn to watch a show has ended. “Put on the radio, mama,” is her cry to hear anything but silence during a car drive.
Have I done that to her? Now that I crave quiet, I see that this life I maintained left a mark like a ring unconsciously leaving a tan line.
Dear friend,
Do you ever have newfound physical energy but lack the beloved desire to create? I feel spent after this year — no, these years. I feel like I have poured out all my hours and words into other people. It was a fun ride in the end but I do not know how to get back to the person I was while in the thick of to-do lists and endless conversations.
How does one linger over words and phrases, spreading out their sweetness like jam over toast, when they spend 8 hours a day aggressively cutting down words for marketing purposes and answering 3-year-old questions with NO, YES, I DON’T KNOW?
How does one pick up the electronic pen to write when she feels she is contributing to everyone else’s battle of noise?
I don’t know.
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