Once You Have Them, Then . . . - MANN

On these cold below zero mornings, it's interesting to see, what looks like, chimneys pushing out steady white streams of smoke. In fact, when one looks closely, it appears as if the smoke is hesitant of leaving the safe confines of the chimney to venture out into the cold. It seems to lift and then stagger as it pushes upward.

As I watched this on a recent drive through the country, I began to think of how hard it is sometimes to get words either on a clean white sheet or into the mix of other words. They seem to push and shove their way around in my mind and as I strive to find a place for them in some particular order, they escape and lose themselves in a myriad of phrases, terms and definitions. Like the smoke that leaves the chimney in a solid stream and soon disappears as vapour into the atmosphere, pronounced by the frigid air, so my words seem to dissipate into the canyons of my mind and memory.

But not all is lost in this venture. In the tumbling of words through my mind, I often think of new and original words that seem to be waiting to be birthed. Then I have the task to give them life, find the right place and relate them to other words.

So the adventure continues and constant awakening happens. Discoveries are made and new thoughts are created. Within time, a document is given birth, sometimes different from the original goal but often more true than originally intended. I guess I just need to let the smoke rise, hesitantly when appropriate and push its way into the unknown.

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