a smidgeon is fine, naturally occurring neon orange fine

I can't say I've ever been particularly comfortable with driving but now, when I drive on the interstate, I can't help but imagine how close everyone is. How it's only a matter of time before parallel paths are disrupted, the car in the left lane and the car in the right collide at high speeds.


Can a car trip? Stumble and fly out of control? What is it, two feet of road separating you from hurtling into the ditch? How do we not get sucked into all of those semi wheels?


When I glance in my rear view mirror then look forward again I find myself mildly amazed that I'm still in my lane, that I didn't veer off and get jack knifed on that sign post.


It's my overactive imagination, I've had it all my life so I'm quite practiced at stretching it to create a variety of scenarios in order to balance out the wildly worst ones. This undercuts the fear, leaves me with just a smidgeon of stress. I don't worry about forcing any change, I accept I'm going to think this way sometimes: don't worry, don't dwell. It's just a quiet current that tugs a little bit here and there.


I am sitting here contemplating not telling you about this––what I have just actually already told you. But. I went to a lecture by a psychologist last weekend and she was talking about this: the overactive imagination. And she recommends just the same thing for her clients. Think of it like a menu, she tells them. So you created the worst case scenario, now what's the out of this world dream scenario? What are some in-betweens that can happen? Now you see, the whole situation has become a lot less overwhelming.


It's 12:30 a.m. but sometimes I still hear flocks of geese in the sky.


The snow is (currently) all gone but I still wanted to post these two, their drab with bright splashes of color, natural or otherwise. Taken just a few weeks ago.