The Clap-free Journaling Zone

February 20, 2018 —

I sit at my computer, listening to my “writing” mix on Spotify, waiting for inspiration to hit. And I sit waiting.

My usual ritual is to let the lyric-less melodies pull my thoughts in and review yesterday’s events. Somewhere in yesterday lies my inspiration. Not that something specifically has occurred yesterday but something from yesterday will normally trigger a thought, a past event, a realization, my “a-ha” moment that spurs on at least 300–500 words of easily captured reminiscing.

This morning…nothing. I was off work yesterday. I spent the morning at the gym, came home and made breakfast for the wife and me. I cleaned up the kitchen and started a batch of bread (yes really, I make bread). I then spent the better part of the day reading and then watching a movie on tv. At one point my daughter asked if I could go with her to the store to help carry a throw-rug that she wanted to buy. An un-event-ful-day.

Where’s my story? <attention please — everyone stop what you’re doing and look around you — can you see my story>

Am I brave enough to hit “publish” after writing this? Or should I say, am I “foolish” enough to hit publish? Does my post require value to the masses or am I simply writing to satisfy my need to write? Does this belong in a journal instead of on the internet? What if Medium is my journal of sorts? What if no one reads this anyway…does it even exist if it hails no claps? If it receives no claps, is it any better than the worst of my articles that have drawn little-to-no attention in the past?

So I write. Let’s see, think of something at least partially profound…hmmm…here goes:

Look forward. Though we can learn from our past, we can only change our future. — Me

I like it. Yeah, let’s stick with that.