Interconnected (Catherine Campbell)

Isolating – the weather is bleak.

I watched the rain drops slithering along the curved roof of the sunroom. The wind howled. The trees dance or so it seems. Dancing – reminding me of the swirling shapes and colours of a crowded dance floor. Except that the dance I remember really wasn’t very crowded. Maybe more like meandering ribbons, multi-coloured.

I returned to my desk. It had been a singularly unproductive morning. Blank sheets of paper, stark white, staring at me from the desk. I reached for my coffee cup and knocked over a container of paper clips.

How intriguing. They seemed to come alive on the white background. I joined a blue one to a red one and positioned them in the corner of the paper. Then added a yellow and a green and another red. I snaked the paper clip chain making loops and curves. I closed the loop but that was too neat. It suggested that there could be closure. No, the paper clip chain had to trail away….

Sighing I shrugged. “I am making much too much of this. Just procrastinating.” I shook the chain off the paper and picked up a pen. I couldn’t think of anything to write. My eyes wandered back to the pile of paper clips.

“Maybe not – I like the symbolism. Is that what I am missing in my story? The connections.” I played with the clips. “The plot doesn’t have to be in a straight line. It just needs to link. See, it can go forward and down, back and up. Keep it moving and when there are no more connections – I am done.”

I thought some more about that chain.

“I still have to start, somewhere. Maybe the middle.” Tracing the paper clip chain, “See I can always circle back. Maybe, crazy as that sounds, start at the end.”

Sighing – a walk in the rain might clear my head. The chain will be here when I get back.

Photo by Howard W. Moyer and Catherine A. Campbell – www.moyerimages.com