Maybe we're not drowning

There's a lot going on in my little world over here. We all kind of orbit in our own universes, don't we? Anyway, I've been doing some cocooning this week. Reading, thinking, feeling. It's why you haven't seen a lot from me on IG (if you're following me there). 

I'm a writer. Not just by trade or by choice or by passion, but by necessity because explaining the sh*t outa things is my superpower. It's been a long time since I've written any fiction, which is kind of important and kind of frivolous (depends on your perception, I guess). But I haven't done it. It's been 18 months since I've written any fiction to completion. I miss that part of me but my emotional energy has been pointed in another direction and I takes a ton of energy to write and write WELL. 

Today I was reflecting on one of my favorite pieces I've written. It's only a small piece, not even short story length, but it remains as what I believe is some of my best work. 

You see, I took a class at the community college last fall,  Creative Writing, with the hopes that it would get me back in the saddle, so to speak. It didn't, but that's neither here or there. I turned in this favorite piece titled In Your Atmosphere. My friend had dared me to title all of my assignments with John Mayer lyrics. Challenge. Accepted. 

This piece was my submission for our critique process. It was fascinating to hear these young people critique my writing. The most intriguing part was the interpretation of my use of rain. Pouring rain is central to the piece. And water is usually, as the professor pointed out, a symbol of a baptism or a drowning. I fully intended this character to be drowning. Hopeless, giving up, can't breathe drowning. I channeled every bit of drowning I could muster into that piece. 

Here's the kicker. 

They all read it as a baptism. A washing clean. A fresh start. And I couldn't say any different because my job was to shut up and take notes to edit my work. 

So today, as I'm cocooning and reading and thinking, I've been thinking about the idea that maybe when we think we're drowning we're bring reborn. I don't know. Because  seriously I don't know anything. (Except for why we have wisdom teeth. That I know.) But drowning/baptism/dying/reborn, maybe it's all one in the same and it's how we think about it that's different? 

I'm not getting all glass is half full or half empty on you because as a wise person once said, "what's important is that the glass is refillable." I don't know who said it, but they were so right. 

So, Bombshells, if you feel like your drowning, maybe you're actually being baptized. And maybe I am too.