Quote / Robert Frost and Pondering...

Writing Quote:

"If I don't write to empty my mind, I go mad." ~Lord Byron

...And this one leads me to ponder. I imagine many writers can relate to this quote; just as many artists, musicians, athletes can relate to the need to "let something out".

But what if there's something more to it? What if it's something quite literal in this literary quote?

All of my life has been a constant flood of a thoughts, images, dialogues, dreams... I can still remember vivid dreams from as early as three years old. I have a store of memories like an old projector, rattling off faces, conversations, jokes, arguments, old boyfriends, fishing trips, drives in the car... well, you get the picture. It never stops. My husband can ask me what I'm thinking about, and I can spill one hundred things out before I even get to the good stuff.

My thoughts  are layered, overlapping, non related stories. In one part of my brain I'm remembering my mother brushing my hair so tenderly, in another I'm debating politics and religion, in another I'm wondering if I'm too old to have another child, and in another I'm planning dinner, which leads me to think of how our housekeeper in the Philippines ate the same rice and hard boiled egg three meals a day... every day.

Since I was a teenager, I haven't been able to stand being alone in a quiet room for long. The thoughts just flow too uncontrolled. Oh... and before I scare anyone... they're not bad thoughts. They're just random, and multiple, and if I don't distract myself with background noise, then they drown me, and I don't focus well.

The only time I don't mind the quiet is when I'm writing, drawing, or painting.

Maybe my mind has been trying to tell me something. And it's only taken me 40 years or so to listen.

Words have always been my constant companion. Whether spoken aloud or within, they are always there, and can't help but pour out in poems, song lyrics, and performances. Oh, yes... I am also a stage actress, you know. Of course the only people I perform for are my immediate family, but they are quite the willing audience. My husband says I missed my true calling as a Broadway "silly song writer." They are my spe-ci-al-it-y to be sure ;)

Anyhoo... I've gone on long enough. But I'd like to thank Lord Byron for inspiring me to stop for a moment and realize that not all of the voices in our heads are meant to be run away from or locked up over. Sometimes they were put there to capture on paper and make room for new ones.

Blessings... LindaPS. Yes. I make up words too. I suppose I should have warned folks of that before I started this whole "writing thing". ;)