can everybody just shut up already!?

I don’t have a kid, or a needy spouse, or a job that eats up my life – purportedly so I have all the time I want to embark on my own creative endeavors. To excavate my hidden potential and reach for that highest star that our parents and teachers told us was ours for the taking. And yet it feels like I don’t have the time or the energy to do any of those things. But let’s be honest;
we both know that isn’t true. Even if, like me, you have a 9-5 job, a long commute, evenings at school, and a band on the side there are still unused hours of the day. Hours that we fill with television, social media, international conspiracy theories (if that’s your thing)- basically, just things ratchet up the noise in our heads to drown out the guilt of the wasted hours.

But I am declaring here and now to make a change. I am going to create a space in my life to just shut up for a second and let myself be. I need some room to think and reflect. And I’m not talking about reading a Dr. Phil book on the edge of a mesa during sunset with a cup of tea. I mean clinging to the sticky hand rail of the bus at 7pm while an old man unleashes a noxious fart and the humidity from the steaming bodies creates a film of moisture on your upper lip. And then just letting that moment be.  Because you have the power to drown out that moment with headphones and a carefully placed scarf but maybe you could take the moment for what it is. Let it fill you full of the human experience and add to your arsenal of anecdotes to share with the world. Because maybe, like me, you are embarking on a creative journey and can use all the help you can get. 

So this all comes back to this morning’s reading of Stephen King’s On Writing (I swear I’m not getting paid to plug this book). In it, he tells the reader that your story isn’t something created through plot and design; it’s something that already exists if you can just put in the effort to excavate the truth. And if that’s the case, if design isn’t the point, aren’t stories just a series of moments? Moments that maybe already exist but you missed while you were too busy reading another smutty short story on your phone?  What I’m saying is; it’s time for me to wake up. And maybe if I can just shut up long enough, I can finally hear what this life is trying to tell me.