It’s midnight.
The house is quiet except for the steady swish of the washing machine and the soft click of buttons in the drier. The air is warm with the smell of the chocolate cookies I just pulled from the oven. They’re what keep me up so late. I must wait for them to cool.
I blame the cookies, but my thoughts are really the reason I have not yet crawled into bed. So many thoughts. I think of friendships. Relationships. Work. Surprises. Secrets. Think. Think. Think. My eyelids feel weighted, but my brain bounces around weightlessly in my head. I picture it, floating from one side to the other, like the DVD emblem when the player is on pause.
That’s some deep stuff right there.
This is the first time in a long time that I’ve sat down to write with no end in sight. It’s how I used to write my newspaper columns in college. Hours from deadline I would sit hunched over the computer, sure that this would be the time nothing would come out. Convinced I’d have to replace my column spot with an advertisement for two-for-one chilidogs at New Graham Pharmacy and Gift Shop. An advertisement that I was sure would get more attention than my pithy words.
But the pithy words always came. Flowing from my fingers, I felt so sure that someone would read them, be changed by them. I wonder if anybody ever did.
So I sit here again, wondering if the things I write matter. They have to. What is a writer with no reader?
If a word is written which nobody reads, does it make a sound?
Your words do matter, Brandy. They are making a huge difference in many, many lives around the world. Keep your chin up…things will get better.
I LOVE to read your words, Brandy!!!!
it’s not nice to blame cookies. they didn’t choose to put themselves in your oven at midnight. they’re just full of wholesome delicious goodness!
i think it would be funny for one post to just have a chilidog ad.
i heard them.
YOU SHOULD KNOW BY NOW MUCH YOUR WORDS DO MEAN. THEY HAVE TOUCHED MY HEART IN SO MANY WAYS. GOD GAVE YOU A VERY SPECIAL TALENT AND YOU SHOULD NEVER TAKE IT FOR GRANTED. IF YOU GET LONELY CALL ME ON MY CELLPHONE. I KNOW YOU THINK I NEVER KEEP IT ON. BUT I WILL FOR NOW ON. LOVE YOU MOM