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Three thoughts have been floating through my head lately, each disconnected, different.

The first was that I need to be writing more (read - again.) It's been basically three years since I've focused on anything relating to writing, and I think that it is in writing that my brain thinks the best. I was talking with my wife this past week and I think that my brain functions slowly enough and is visually stimulated enough that it helps to be able to put thought to paper, so to speak.

The second was in relation to my having just received as a gift, a fire pit. I cannot tell you how much this gift blessed me. Where I am, at this point in life, I felt truly un-worthy of this gift. Sitting there watching embers glow and fade in the darkness of my backyard last night I was struck by the idea that, fire is a very philosophical element. Very contemplative.

My third thought was about the "power of words." A pedantic cliche at this point, none-the-less I think there is a lot of truth in some of these simple ideas. I was thinking about the idea that the first time you say something is the hardest, then after that it gets "easier," but also gains more meaning. Hear me here, think about the first time you told someone that you love them. All the fear and vulnerability in saying it for the first time and risking rejection, but then if it is received, accepted and reciprocated then it begins to take on meaning. Now, with my wife, Kristen, some of the situations that life has thrown at us and still being able to say those words, I can tell you they mean more now than they did the first time I told her that in a local parks rose garden. Much more. Similarly, with negative thoughts. The first time we call someone stupid, or the first time we call ourselves stupid it gets that much easier to believe each time thereafter. The power of words.

I guess if you wanted to you could find a through line in these three thoughts I think it would all be the realization of words, the complete character arch of speech and action.

if you're reading this, welcome back,

matt