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Drabble Corner

Michelle Swisz

This month's Drabble epitomizes our August theme, "Ready or Not," such that it's in a class by itself. I think you'll see exactly what I mean. Here is, by Frank Bales:

Do You Know What It's Like To Be So Afraid You Can't Close Your Eyes? by Frank Bales So afraid that your body is constantly tense; in a cold sweat you notice most on your ass because you've never felt it there before? Your mouth becomes dry as powder, and hands seek something to grasp even if it's just the other hand. Your mind is racing, knowing death is near, yet unable to comprehend that you really will die; trying to figure out a way of escape when you know there isn't one. Smelling death as it approaches; hearing that nothingness beyond the violence that will end your life. Feeling death's presence as it reaches out for you.

Thanks for all the great input this month! I'm still confused ("Confusion" is our theme for September). My life as a person in the midst of a divorce, in new surroundings and circumstances, is a deck of cards thrown aloft but not landed anywhere (that I recognize, anyway). Shall we do another Confusion month? No, we'd better move on; I may be this way for some time yet.

But if one has to accept this state, as a universal human state and as a necessary precursor to the new, maybe there is a way to look at it that can make it feel less anxiety-generating. It sounds crazy, but . . . gratitude, maybe? And gratitude for what, exactly? Our annoyances seem to keep tapping us on the shoulder until we acknowledge and address them. If the tapping doesn't work, the process goes on until something does work; we're felled and forced to pay attention if we want to continue. The baby cries until fed, the back hurts until cared for. Whatever annoys us, maybe there's something to listen to there. A message, telling us what we need, exclusively for us. Instead of ignoring the message until we're forced to listen to it, what if we tried to stop covering our ears in our overwhelmed state, to slow down and receptively listen to it? That message works for our benefit, and so it naturally elicits gratitude, when we can and do finally listen receptively to it and hear it. We'd be dead many times over if it weren't for some of those shoulder taps! But what if we can appreciate that message at one of those first taps on the shoulder, instead of sometimes covering our ears until it's too loud and rough to ignore; confusion turned to anxiety, then to misfortune? Maybe gratitude for that message, in advance of knowing what it contains, might help the process of opening up to it and hearing it more clearly.

So here is a theme for October: Gratitude, single or double (200 words) Drabble. See you next month.

Michelle