Day 17 – The Dance

Capturing the right words as they run through my mind is like snatching confetti from the air during a Sounder’s game. Out of the thousands and thousands of little slips of colored paper, only a few dozen float close enough for me to even try to grab one. Then the puff of air created in my effort to pinch a piece pushes it even further from my grasp. Words can be that way too. I think I’ve got a good one only to find myself pushing it away in the effort to create a meaningful sentence.

Yet, my eyes are drawn skyward to watch confetti dance in the breeze. Rectangular slips lift and spin. Some fall quickly to rest motionless on the ground; others fly higher still and drift up and up, out of sight. I’m drawn to words on a page too. Sometimes my reading falls flat. My concentration wanes, and I seem to have read several pages unconsciously. The words float by like confetti, and none register meaning. Or I can stare off into space, a blank page before me under my pen, and hunt for ideas. Words drift past. Wisps of meaning are there like smoke lasting only for a moment. Only with discipline will I catch a few and begin to scribble them on the vacant page. One by one they whisk by, which ones will remain do so as a mysterious dance between pen tip and page.

The 365 day writing journey is a walk down this less traveled road. No clear roadmap exists. The path lies dim and misty twisting off into the unknown. All I can do is sit in front of the blank page, grasp the pen between thumb and forefinger and let the dance begin.