let's get silly
hello again
Well, here we are at another Sunday. I’m not sure about you, but the days have been feeling both too long and too short for me recently. It’s a weird mix of long, languid hours, and quick, eyeblink days.
I keep reading comments and posts about how this expectation of productivity during this sheltering-in-place time is not only unrealistic, but harmful. This argument resonates with me.
I feel a lot of (self-inflicted) pressure to get my job done and write consistently and make art and bake twenty sourdough loaves and perfect my relationship with my partner because _wow, there is finally time_.
But that pressure has been making me feel a consistent hum of anxiety, and I want to be able to just let it go, accept that things are scary and overwhelming right now, and allow that maybe an acceptable way to handle it all is to spend time scrolling funny posts on TikTok and binging shows online.
On the other hand, I know that when I stay in bed late and sit on the couch for hours and don’t move and don’t eat, that lack of structure piles up and starts to harm my mental health. I begin to have a harder time managing my emotions. Tapping into happiness and joy feels more exhausting.
I guess the long and short of it is that finding the balance is difficult for me, and it seems like I’m not the only one. I hope that you are figuring out strategies for managing this. Maybe a little reflective writing will help? Maybe a little fun and playfulness will help? We’ll see.
prompt #5:
This prompt is intended to help connect with humor and silliness.
Close your eyes, then wind up your arms wildly around you, index fingers pointing. Count to 3, then freeze your arms. Whatever two objects your fingers are pointing at will be your subjects.
Start your timer for five minutes and jump into a scene that includes a dialogue between your two objects. You can jump into the middle of a situation if you’re feeling inspired. If you’re unsure where to start, think about conflict (what might be a problem these two objects need to overcome?) or relationship (how are these two objects related to each other?)
After five minutes, you can extend this scene, use something from the scene to make something new, or just leave it as is.
ashley’s piece (full disclosure, this is a very silly meet cute):
Orchid glanced at the new guy, wondering if she should strike up a conversation. She had never seen him before, and could sense that he was a little cold. The condensation sparkled on him.
But here he was, sitting right next to her, and it would be rude, wouldn’t it, it not to say something?
“Hi, I’m Orchid.” She paused, waiting for a response, but he said nothing, so she continued. “I haven’t seen you before on The Sill. It’s a really nice spot. I think you’ll like it. I’ve been here a long time, and I honestly wouldn’t even want to be anywhere else. There’s a nice breeze that— ”
She stopped, realizing that he was trying to jump in.
“Hi. I’m Mayonnaise.” A pause. He spoke with slow, measured precision and she couldn’t tell if he was catching his breath or—“I usually go by Mayo.”