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Think of something you lost recently.
What are two positive insights you gained from the
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experience?
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I don’t know if it counts as “losing” or “recently” (January of last year — generally I’m too paranoid to lose anything!), but it was my good earphones.
When I went to get them out of my bag one day and not finding them, I remembered (after thinking about it for a while) putting them in the pocket on the back of the seat in front of me on a return flight from Maryland where I’d flown to bake birthday cakes for two of my grandsons. I remembered saying to his nibs as I dropped them in the pocket, “Don’t let me forget to take them when we leave…” (Famous last words…)
What positive insights did I gain? One, that as I’m aging so is my memory. It’s not as sharp as it once was and I need to learn not to depend on it as much to keep me moving in the right direction. And two, that it’s important to learn to grieve well. Even though this was a small loss and not very consequential in the grand scheme of things, I was still very upset as I’d had them for so long. I thought about them with a heavy heart for weeks.
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Picture Source: QuoteAddicts.com
Impromptu Promptlings 
Pingback: Taking Time – Writing and Reflections
Since time is relative, two years is recently, compared the decades I’ve lived. Somewhere back in 2016, I found myself in a place where I couldn’t write anymore. To me that meant that my Muse had gone astray, leaving me without a way to find words, and without the desire to even do so. She’s been on vacation, or perhaps went out for a quart of milk, and kept right on going. I can’t say. I don’t know.
Just last night, however, I saw what life was like when she was in residence. I read a story from back then and wondered, ‘who wrote that?’ because I was impressed and I couldn’t imagine that I’d put pen to paper and came up with it. No, I had not lost my mind; I just didn’t remember writing that and all I’d actually done that year.
Flash Forward to 2018, and I’ve marginally rejoined the world of answering challenges. But wait? How could I do that without my Muse? Well, there actually are many ways to convey stories, or take on challenges. This year I decided when I stepped back into the sandbox, that I was going to use music and images to respond to each challenge. That’s one thing I’ve learned.
The second thing I learned is that I am awakening from this never-ending time of darkness called Winter. It occurred to me just how much I’m actually doing these days. And here I was wondering when this funk would boogie out of town. I need wonder any longer, as I’m ‘back in the saddle again,’ and who knows what may come of this?
Oh, and what a coincidence this is. The story is about disappearing. I just thought of that.
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But your muse was never lost. MAYBE you just lost your confidence? You write like a dream. Like the fantasy romantics of old. You just don’t see it!
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I think it’s more of a disconnection from that creative center where-in my MUSE dwelt. The other possibility is that she’s not lost, but I am. Hmmmmm.
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Where are you lost at?
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I don’t know, I was lost!
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Pingback: Saturday Sound Bites-LOST | Spiritual Dragonfly
When I was eleven I lost my girlfriend. Her parents moved away and meanly took her with them. It was a disaster I have never fully gotten over. I still think about her.
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People, especially, are sometimes so hard to let go of. Grieving has to be involved, but as a culture — at least until recently — that’s a subject we seldom talk about. But I don’t think we can know how to live well until we have an understanding of what it means to grieve well. What do you think, Oph?
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