Get Lost to Get Found
Like that discarded shoe in the shoulder, we could all use a little time out.
And you may.
You may feel like that lone shoe in the shoulder, abandoned on the roadside with no indication of your crime. Alone, discarded, and misunderstood, feeling the swell of uncertainty surge toward you.
And you may feel the panic of your predicament threading its way through your lace holes, pulling your anxiety to an impossible tightness.
And you may think: “But I was part of something, wasn’t I? Wasn’t each step planned and in sync with another? And wasn’t I going somewhere? I was, wasn’t I?”
And you may ask yourself, as you sit amongst the glass shards of so many pointless bottle smashings, how did I get here, David Byrne? And David Byrne may say that your life car was driving erratically. Or that the window was down and you were hurled in a fit of rage in your bright-soled way to land on the asphalt with a thud and a cry. And perhaps he might say that you were the one doing the hurling from behind the wheel of that large automobile.
Same as it ever was. Same as it ever will be.
And he may say that you needed that lone shoe time out to remove yourself from the commonalities and sameness of the day-to-day.
To shock yourself into the quiet void of alone.
With time to think.
Time to figure out next steps.
Time to reflect on previous steps and if you were happy with the footprints you left behind.
Do you need new shoes?
Do you need a new direction, new laces, a collaborator?
Because you may ask yourself—should ask yourself—not just how did I get here, but is this where I really want to be?
Or you may not ask yourself any of these questions—not today—but this is me and folks, this is where we’re at. New Year’s Day. One lone shoe with no talking head. Just off the roadside in the Mojave desert.
How do I find myself?
In what way do I find myself?
Do I want to be found?
The truth of it is, we could all do with some time in the shoulder. Once in a lifetime, at least. To reset, reflect, and re-sole our souls. But the best part of this predicament is that, unlike an actual lone shoe on the roadside, we don’t have to stay there. It is not destiny to be lost to the winds of time.
You don’t have to fade out or be washed away. You can walk right back into your life and get back to work, no shoes required.
And it’s not you may.
You can.
Yours in tiny thought,
Janeen
This week’s amends…
“I Want to Live”
I want to live
the rest of my life,
however long or short,
with as much sweetness
as I can decently manage,
loving all the people I love,
and doing as much as I can
of the work I still have to do.
I am going to write fire
until it comes out of my ears,
my eyes, my noseholes—everywhere.
Until it’s every breath I breathe.
I’m going to go out like a fucking meteor!
By Audre Lourde
Via Swiss Miss
On Rotation: C.W. Stoneking “That Thing I Done”
These are so great. illustrations of the elegant atlas moth and paper kite and orange-barred sulfur butterflies fly through a new trio of analog animations by J.C. Fontanive.
Via Colossal
Via Neatorama
Did any of this spark a tiny thought of your own?