via Pixabay

If you can’t fit between the lines, don’t try to squeeze into a compromising position.

I’ve been distracted lately — over the past two years. Caught in a continuous cycle of trying to figure things out. And in doing so, I concluded that we’re always trying to figure things out.

Finding an answer to a problem is unique to that problem. Other problems may not be the quick fix kind like when the battery on my mouse dies and I need a new one — problem solved!

But other problems take time to process like where did I leave my car keys and how did I drive without them?

Oh, that was a mind trip that didn’t require physical transportation or carry on luggage. That was my imagination working on fun stuff, not the brain teaser stuff that hurts your head when you think too hard.

Our brains are constantly multitasking on the realistic and fantastical and recycling thoughts that can’t be solved overnight.

Overnight solutions aren’t relevant to all of life’s confusions.

I know because I’ve been confused for so long on what to write about and why I keep getting stuck in a whirlpool of self-doubt. I’m neurotic by nature or the dysfunction from whence I came.

Following an older, mentally disabled brother through school and life hasn’t helped foster my self-image. We’re 18 months apart and yet light years away. Not because I’m a cold-hearted bitch — because of my brother’s sociopathic tendencies from being enabled by guilty parents. (Sorry, mom! I had to get that out.)

My older mentally disabled brother, my aging parents, and my younger brother who I lost to Trump are among the swirl of thoughts that gyrate in my brain.

Writing is my go-to solution for sanitizing thoughts.

So, it becomes even more distressing when I don’t know what to write about, not because of writer’s block or a lack of ideas. No, my problem is the opposite of that. I have too many thoughts and too many genres from which to write. I like to write humor, satire, prose, dialog. I’m versatile, which can be a vexing problem.

When I need to unvex myself, I return to a blog post I wrote many years ago about blogging your way back to writing. It reminds me of the things I love writing about and the creative bliss it brings. Those moments that touched me or amused me enough to inspire a blog post.

Simple observations of life’s stories happening around me: my dog side-swiping his cone on the door frame and falling off the stoop. Kind of funny until I saw that it opened the scab that was healing on his paw.

That above photo of Jake was taken moments before he awakened from his nap and I let him outside. The aforementioned door incident was not captured on my phone but will be forever captured in my mind, along with the thousands of ideas that continue to dog me.

Sitting down and writing this blog post and delving into my psyche has unburdened me of the many unresolved swirling thoughts including what to write about.

Don’t try to stay inside the lines if you’re an outside the lines thinker.

Instead of trying to fit within the parameters of what the so-called experts espouse is the proper way to write and hone a platform — I’ll write what’s best for me and my versatility. It’s the only way to keep my sanity.

If being versatile doesn’t help me reach a definite writing goal then so be it! I’d rather be unburdened in my creativity than hindered by the constraints of what’s considered normal.

I choose to embrace the strange!